Beyond the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in the Mission Compound of Sagada is the cemetery. I was actually on my way to Echo Valley when I chanced upon this place. Had I known that I would be passing by this place, I would have tried to avoid it. Anyway, the cemetery here in the Mission Compound is laid out along the side of the mountain with the a crucifix at the very top of the slope.
When I passed by, there happened to be a funeral service going on. There were several local people gathered around a spot in the cemetery, obviously someone just died. What was quite peculiar was that they were playing happy music and even had a video recording of the whole event. I wasn’t sure whether it was just the wishes of the deceased or it is their tradition here in Sagada. Among them was a foreigner who was observing the proceedings. It guess this is one of those culture things you do not get to see very often.
I didn’t really want to stick around the funeral service. I was careful not to step on the tombs of the buried there, because I needed to cut through the cemetery to get to Echo Valley, which lies beyond the cemetery grounds. Some of the tombs actually have foreign names and I would presume that these we from the early missionary folk who came to settle here. This is an interesting contrast in culture in Sagada. One on hand they still practice the traditional way of burial where they suspend the deceased in wooden coffins and on the other hand they practice the “modern” way of burial which is six feet under. I didn’t linger around any more since the place it starting to creep me out.
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