Indonesia
Trunyan Village
The dead of Trunyan lie under an ancient tree that takes away the smell.
Across Lake Batur, reached only by boat, the Bali Aga village of Trunyan keeps its dead above ground: bamboo cages beneath a great fragrant tree, skulls arranged along the path, and no odour at all. The villagers credit the Taru Menyan tree.
Trunyan is one of Bali's original Bali Aga communities, pre-dating the island's Hindu-Javanese mainstream, and its open-air burial ground on Lake Batur's eastern shore is unlike anywhere else on the island: the dead rest in woven bamboo cages under the Taru Menyan tree rather than being cremated. Guide boats cross from Kedisan, most running directly to the cemetery shore and back, and the visit runs on community permission and quiet behaviour, a courtesy owed to a working burial ground. It folds naturally into a Lake Batur day beneath the active volcano across the water.
- Open-air burial under the Taru Menyan tree is practised nowhere else in Bali.
- Trunyan's Bali Aga community pre-dates the island's Hindu-Javanese mainstream.
- The site is reached only by boat across Lake Batur.
- Community permission and quiet conduct are the terms of entry.
Mujair nyat-nyat, Lake Batur tilapia reduced in basa gede spice paste, is the lake's dish.
The warungs serving it line the shore villages of Kedisan and Toya Bungkah.
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