People who see these coffins for the first time will gasp in horror, but in Liu Chaoxian's view, it is their ancestors who are buried here, which is the history and inheritance of their surname Liu 1000 years.
The place where Taohua Village is located has endless mountains, quiet environment and high oxygen content in the air. With this advantage, it was gradually developed, and the local government wanted to turn it into a new tourist attraction.
Liu Chaoxian works in Little Square under construction during the day. His life goes on, and his daily salary is 120 yuan. He came to this cave after work at night, guarding the peace of his ancestors all the year round. Everyone called him "the coffin keeper". This job assigned by the government can bring Liu Chaoxian income from 300 yuan every month.
Many people can't figure out why Liu Chaoxian has been sticking to this job for so many years. Even the owner of the construction site joked that Liu Chaoxian was greedy for money, but what everyone didn't know was that Liu Chaoxian was not sticking to this meager income, but admiring his ancestors.
This way of cave burial adopted by the local Miao people still starts with an ancestor named Liu about1110 years ago. At that time, most of Taohua Village adopted the method of burial. After the death of his ancestors, his descendants chose a hillside with good feng shui for his burial.
However, after everything was ready, something happened on the way to the funeral. A sudden rainstorm and flash floods completely disrupted the funeral crowd. In order to avoid flash floods, everyone had to put down their coffins and hide everywhere.
After the mountain torrents subsided, people did not see the trace of their ancestors' coffins, so they organized the whole village to look for them together. Because of the flash flood, everyone thought that the coffin was washed downstream by the flash flood, but after three days and three nights of searching, the coffin was never found in the downstream rivers and villages.
Coincidentally, everyone found the coffin of their ancestors in this cave. Everyone was surprised. After all, the cave is not big, and the hole is covered with dense trees. People who are not familiar with the terrain can't find this place at all Why did their ancestors' coffins come here?
The villagers' questions were finally answered by the village wizards. In the wizard's view, the ancestral coffin came to this cave because the ancestors wanted to stay in their hometown, not to be far away from this hot land in their hearts, but to wait for their hometown and family all the time.
This statement of the wizard has been recognized by most villagers, that is, from this time on, Taohua Village began the funeral mode of cave burial.
However, there are certain restrictions on cave hiding. Not everyone can be buried here. Only people who have a certain position or contribution in the Liu family can be buried here. It's called entering the city. These people who bury coffins here generally need a ghost teacher to preside over their practice. Those who are not qualified to be buried here can only choose the way of burial, that is, going to the countryside among the population of Taohua Village.
With the development of society, there is only one ghost teacher left in the village. Just like Liu Chaoxian, the coffin keeper, in order to maintain his life, he also found a job of herding sheep and provided him with daily living expenses. Otherwise, he can't live on the income of a genius teacher alone.
The arrangement of coffins in the cave is very regular. According to Liu's four branches, four areas are divided, and coffins of different branches are placed in each area.
Most of these coffins are stacked, which looks like a family has been staying together, very warm and loving. In fourth area, there is a special area. There are no rules here, so you can place it at will.
If a seriously ill group dies, put it in the deepest part of the cave. Liu Chaoxian said that once someone died of tuberculosis, the coffin was placed here. Experts call this practice a simple concept of disease prevention.
Liu Chaoxian is most familiar with the coffin in the cave. He pointed to two coffins, one large and one small, and said to everyone, "Do you think this is like a big horse with a son riding on his father's shoulder? It's a father and son The child died before he grew up, and it was not long before the child came. " Liu Chaoxian can also clearly tell which coffin of his ancestors is, and has begun to consider whether his mother should put it here after a hundred years.
1000 years of cave burial history has also attracted archaeologists. Through the investigation of caves, they found many things of archaeological value.
For example, coffin 5 16 is the oldest one; For example, in coffin No.415, a pleated skirt with heron pattern and a batik knife were found. These are very precious cultural relics, which are of great help and impetus to the research on the development of color batik in China, and this dress is also collected in Guizhou Provincial Museum as a national first-class cultural relic.
However, the popularity of cave burial has made many grave robbers move their minds and caused great damage to coffins. In order to protect the integrity of the coffin here, Liu Chaoxian came here and became a coffin keeper. The government paid 300 yuan every month. He checks the situation in the cave every day and counts the number of coffins in time to prevent them from being destroyed and stolen by malicious people.
In this 45-meter-long and 24-meter-wide cave, Liu Chaoxian is seen every day. He shuttled here for the faith in the hearts of Liu people and the highest respect for the people.