I remember when I was little being carried on my father’s back in a procession through the forest,” says A Chang.

“It was my grandfather’s funeral. We followed the coffin through the forest then, as quickly as monkeys, some of the villagers climbed up into the tees and fixed the coffin firmly onto the tree branches. The coffin had to be perfectly balanced, otherwise the dead person’s soul would suffer hardship.”

This custom known as tang treo has been practiced for hundreds of years by Gie Trieng ethnic minority people living in small hamlets of 10-15 households in Kon Tum, Quang Nam and Lam Dong provinces in the Central Highlands,.

Gie Trieng people once believed that burying the dead in the earth means that the living did not care for the deceased. If a dead person was buried, he or she might even seek revenge, bringing illness, accidents or death to the living.

A Chang, now 74 years old, says the bodies of his ancestors were all put in a wooden coffin and hung in the forest trees about two kilometers from his village in Dak Long commune in Kon Tum province’s Dak Glei.

Each Gie Trieng village had its own “cemetery” in a nearby forest. When someone died, the family ensured everything was prepared properly and no relatives or neighbors would help because the departed was now a ghost and could bring them bad luck.

The corpse was moved quickly so bad luck would not linger in the house. After prayers were said, the empty coffin was carried to the cemetery before the corpse. The corpse was placed in the coffin at the cemetery and remained in the trees until it decayed.

The dead would be given some items to use in the next life such as pots, songs and tools, which were placed under the trees below the coffin. If the deceased was well-equipped, he or she would not have to return to disturb the living.

If two people died within a short space of time, they would sometimes share the same coffin. Villagers would not return to the forest or venture far from their home for 10 days after a funeral because the soul of the deceased would be hovering around and could coax the living towards death. A grieving family would never visit the burial site of their loved one again lest the ghost followed them back to their home.

Modern time

This kind of traditional funeral is now past history. As this custom was blamed for the spread of infectious diseases and environmental pollution, it started to wane in the 1970s. Most people presumed it disappeared altogether, but in early 1999 local media reported that representatives from the Kon Tum Museum spotted a “tree cemetery” when visiting Dak Long commune.

At first, ad delegation from the museum was denied access to the area by the village elders. Not because it was considered a secret, but due to the old traditional fear that the ghosts would be disturbed and end up haunting the living. But the museum personnel eventually managed to gain permission from the community to enter the cemetery zone. They reported finding a gloomy section of forest, which was undeniably creepy because of the coffins on the ground and in the trees, plus scatterings of bones and skulls.

But A Chang claims that today the Gie Trieng people bury their dead in “concrete graves” above the ground. The graves are usually covered in corrugated iron however, as the body is still not interred underground, this remains a questionable practice.

In some Gie Trieng communities, the dead are still placed in a wooden coffin made out of a large tree trunk, which is buried in a shallow grave just 40-50cm deep. One end of the coffin is carved into the shape of a buffalo head which is said to help the dead in the afterlife. A makeshift hut is then erected over the grave and stocked with the deceased's personal belongings.

Two or three years later, the family of the deceased will return to remove the hut and replace it with a new, bigger wooden house with meticulous decorations. The hut is surrounded by a wooden fence and carved wooden statues resembling human beings, birds and animals. On this reburial day, usually held in the springtime, villagers gather at the cemetery and the family members bring liquor, rice, salt, pork and fruit to the tomb.

They will sing, dance, drink and dine, believing that the deceased has returned to join the feast with them. After the ceremony, the grieving family no longer returns to take care of the grave and the dead are left to rest in peace.