Trunyan

Trunyan is a Bali Aga village on the eastern shore of Lake Batur under the caldera wall, and its funerary practice is unlike the rest of Bali: instead of cremation, the bodies of married villagers who died ordinary deaths are laid in open bamboo cages on the ground at a cemetery reachable only by boat, under a taru menyan tree whose name means fragrant tree and whose scent is said locally to neutralise the smell of decomposition. Skulls and bones are moved to a stone platform once the flesh is gone. It is a real cemetery and a genuinely unusual practice, and it is also the site of a long-standing and well-documented problem: aggressive demands for money from visitors at the boat and at the cemetery, which has damaged its reputation badly.

Highlights

• Open-air burial - bodies in bamboo cages on the ground, not cremated.
• The taru menyan tree - the tree said to counter the smell of decomposition.
• A skull platform - bones moved to a stone shelf after decomposition.
• A boat-only cemetery - no road access to the burial ground.

When to go

April to October. Half a day.

Good to know

Aggressive money demands here are widely reported - agree all prices in writing before boarding and expect further requests anyway. It is a cemetery with visible human remains. Many visitors regret going.

Nearby

Kintamani and the Batur caldera rim are above; Kedisan is the boat landing.

Key facts