page_title: Trunyan
section_title: Funeral rites
hierarchical_section_title: Trunyan / Funeral rites
caption_attribution_description: English: The body of a young lady, put to rest a month ago to decompose, Trunyan, Lake Batur, Bali, Indonesia
context_page_description: Trunyan or Terunyan is a Balinese village located on the eastern shore of Lake Batur, a caldera lake in Bangli Regency, central Bali, Indonesia. The village is one of the most notable homes of the Bali Aga people, the others being the villages of Tenganan and Sambiran. Trunyan is notable for its peculiar treatment of dead bodies, in which they are placed on openly on the ground, simply covered with cloth and bamboo canopies, and left to decompose. The influence of a nearby tree is said to remove the putrid smell of the corpses.
context_section_description: The people of Trunyan practice customs found nowhere else in Bali, many even unique among the Bali Aga people. Among the unique customs of the Trunyanese is their treatment of dead bodies. Instead of cremations, the funeral rite of dead bodies in Trunyanese society is for them to be simply laid on the ground, covered by cloth and a bamboo cage, and left to decompose. The influence of an ancient banyan tree (known as taru menyan, literally "nice smelling tree") near the burial ground is thought to keep the corpses from smelling putrid. It is said that the tree emits a scent which neutralizes the smell of rotting bodies. It is also said that from this tree the name trunyan is derived. When a corpse has fully decomposed, the skull is placed on a stair-shaped stone altar which is located 500 meters north of the banjar Kuban, a special place which can only be reached by boat. Only the bodies of married couples are allowed to be treated like this. If the deceased is not married, the body is buried at a cemetery.
  These Trunyanese funeral rites date back to the neolithic Agama Bayu sect, one of the six most important religious-spiritual sects during pre-Hindu period in Bali. The Agama Bayu worshipped the stars and the wind (angin ngelinus).
caption: The body of a young lady inside a bamboo cage, left to decompose.
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