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The Boat Coffin was a funeral custom in ancient
times. Usually a dead person was put into a coffin shaped like
a boat. It was believed the dead would traverse the sea and return
to their hometown. As a matter of fact, the coffin was not put
into the river; it was hung on a cliff or buried in the ground
where the ancestral temple was built.
Like the ancient
suspended coffins,
the boat coffins have aroused the interest of many people eager to explore its
mystery. People believe it was a funeral custom of the ancient fishermen living
in Daning River Area. A black boat coffin was found on a cliff on the western
bank of Dicui Gorge (one of the Three Little Gorges). The one found in Dicui
Gorge is unique because of its natural environment.
On the left of the boat coffin, black and brown vines emerge from a crack in
the cliff wall. The tumble of vines resembles a fishing net. Fifty five yards
to the left, a sixteen foot stalactite stands like a graybeard wearing a palm-bark
rain cape and a bamboo hat. A tree root looking like the fishing net's rope winds
from the hand of graybeard. The graybeard seems to cast the net into the river.
As there is a boat, a net, and the fisherman, local people call the place 'Fishing
Village'. In fact, the area is quite rich in fish. What a coincidence.
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