Visiting a Mysterious Village, "Trunyan"
Batur Lake in Kintamani Heights in Nothern Bali
is 2 hours away from the resort areas and has the greatest view that many tourists from all over the world fall in love with. A historical village that Bali Aga people live, "Trunyan Village" is located by the lake and is known as having "aerial burial" culture which only a few areas of Indonesia do. However, their location that people can access only by boat and some negative rumor of an illegal charge by the village guides had been spread, so the village was known as "an isolated village" which was difficult to visit for a long time. At such time, we, HIRO-Chan Staffs heard that it has become a safe village to visit! After gathering many imformation about today's Trunyan Village and the inspection, we decided to create a tour to visit the village for our customer!
It takes 2 hours by car from the Sothern resort area to get to Kintamani Heights. Trunyan Village is bottom of Mt. Batur on the opposite shore of Batur Lake. Another village, Toya Bungah Village which is next to Trunyan Village is famous for natural hot spring.
The Oldest Village in Bali
Trunyan (Trunyan or Terunyan) Village is a small village which has only 600 people. The oldest epitaph in Bali says histry of Bali began in A.D. 882 and Trunyan people have lived in the village since around that time. After that, descendants of Majaphit that people moved from Java to Bali around the 14 centry, are known as "Balinese" and people such as Trunyan who lived in Bali before Majaphit are now called "Bali Age". They still live in every places in Bali with the tradition. Trunyan Village is the oldest village among Bali Aga villages and known as their original custom.
People Believing in Aerial Burial
The special charactristic custom of Trunyan is "aerial burial" which is done in only a few areas all over the world today. Usually, Balinese has cremation, but people in Trunyan Village prefer leaving the body on the ground and going back to the earth after death. They believe a body without soul should be back to the creator, "the earth".
There are 3 graveyards in Trunyan Village and which graveyard they go in after death depends on how they die. "Sema Bantas" is an interment for people who killed themselves or passed away because of horrible illness. "Sema Nguda" is also an interment for unmarried people and children. "Sema Wayah" is an aerial burial that people die a natural death. Even if they want their souls to be send off by an aerial burial and a type of death does not match, they wont end their life by an aerial burial. Therefore, an aerial burial has a special meaning for Trunyan people.
Guardian God in Temple of "Center of the World"
The village has other highlights you don't want to miss. The most famous temple, "Pura Pancering Jagat"as known as "the center of the world" has a guardian god of the village, a stone statue of "Ratu Gede Pusering Jagat". Surprisingly, people in the village say it is getting bigger every year.Tourists cannot go inside of the temple, but are allowed to watch it from outside the site. The statue is protected strictly, but only once a year around October with a full moon, it appears outside for the ceremony. Also, "Bali Agung" a roof of the big building located in a center of the village and "Bale Daha" where married women gather have different styles from a traditional Balinese architecture.
Trunyan Village Tour (Private Car) | |
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Adult: 1 person | \16,500/person |
Adult: 2 people | \10,500/person |
Adult: 3 people | \9,500/person |
Adult: 4 pepole | \8,500/person |
Trunyan Village + Hot Spring Tour (Private Car) | |
Adult: 1 person | \19,500/person |
Adult: 2 people | \12,000/person |
Adult: 3 people | \11,000/person |
Adult: 4 people | \10,000/person |
Optional Lunch: Thai Suki | +\500/person |
Sponsor | |
Agus Transport Add: Jl Taman Jimbaran VII.A NO.260 JIMBARAN BALI TEL: 0361-8480433 |
April 4, 2012. Visiting a Legendary Village in Bali "Trunyan"! |
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Report by HIRO-Chan Staff, Jun. This is my first inspection report! Trunyan Village is located in bottom of Mt. Batur in a center of the summer resort area in Bali, Kintamani Heights. The population is only about 600 and the village is not well known as a sightseeing spot, so only Insiders know it as "aerial burial" village. YES! It is neither a cremation nor an interment. Their famous way to end the life is an aerial burial which leaves a dead body on the ground to be weathered.Therefore, the graveyard is the main sightseeing spor in the village tour! Their agriculture is also a source of the income. Are you ready for checking out this mysterious village? Let's go to Trunyan!!! |
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We left HIRO-Chan office early in the mornig by airconditioning HIRO-Chan car! I was excited and nervous at the same time on the way to the village. | In the car, a calm HIRO-Chan guide, Warjana who has been a guide for 25 years, explained many things about Trunyan Village! The view from Sanur to Ubud was very beautiful. We drove through the rice fields and coconuts forests. It was a quiet countryside that we could never been able to see in the Sothern resort areas in Bali. | |
Going down Kintamani Heights! Arriving at the Boat Bording Point |
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We were driving up to Kintamani Heights! I could see Batur Lake environed by mountains below our eyes. (Photo Time is included at this point!) | From the photo point, we drove down to the boat boarding point by the lake. The place was much better than I expected. | Again, the view from the point was great! It is also famous for the production of vegetables, so the fresh air was really fresh! |
Here is the chicket counter. The ticket includes not only boat fee, but also guiding on the boar and in the village. | HIRO-Chan customers don't pay the fee here, because the tour fee includes everything! The guide goes to buy the ticket for you. | It is an unisex Indonesian toilet at the boarding point which costs Rp. 2,000. As a resident in Bali, this was good enough, but tourists might be feel uncomfortable to use. |
Even though usually tourists will take a smaller boat, other inspectors were visiting the village on that day, so we took a large boat which did not rolled a lot. It took 25-30 minutes to get to the village without getting seasickness. | This is the regular small boat tourists will take. It is for 7-9 people and has lifejackets. It also has a roof, but there are few wholes, so you might get wet when it rains. | The view from the boat is one of the highlights of the tour as well! It was like "Island Gods living in"!!! I thought it was the symbol of Bali! |
Arriving at Trunyan Village |
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Finally, the village showed up! It was much smaller than I expected. The area seemed about same with one Tokyo Dome. It has mountains around the village and the lake. It was exactly "Legendary Village" I imagine! As the guide explained, this boat was the only way to get to the village, visitors were sometimes chaged a huge amount of money as a boat fee few years ago. | (Photo above: me & Guide, Warjana) However, there is a road which leads by the lake and the villagers have been educated being engaged in the tourism for the village, so the trouble have been gone. | |
Arriving at the landing place in Trunyan Village which was a Balinese style of the gate! It is exactly a gateway to the legendary village, isn't it? | The peaceful view was there by fllowing the straight street. It made me imagine Ancient Bali with simple houses, rice fields and a Hindu temple. The villagers with the traditional costume were walking off from the temple. The children were looking at us with curiosity. | |
Grandma sitting near the temple. She is surprisingly stylish, isn't she? | This is the Hundu temple in the village which seemes the mountain on the back is protecting. Ususally it is required to wear a sarong around the waist to visit, but we didn't as a special inspection case. | He is a monk called "Mangku" who is respected as a priest in Bali and guards the temple. |
There is only one toilet that visitors can use in the village which costs Rp. 2,000. You have to take off your shoes to use even though the water is overflowed from the tank. It is better for tourists to use the toiltt at the boat boarding point. | ||
To the Graveyard of Aerial Burial, "Kuburan Terunyan" |
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We took a boat again to get to the graveyard. | About after 5 minutes of the ride, we could see the graveyard by the lake. I felt it has different atmosphere from the village. | |
Visitors write down names and make an offering around Rp. 10,000 at the counter. HIRO-Chan Tour fee includes this as well, so the guide will do it for you. | There are separated toilets for men and women which costs Rp. 2,000 to use. They were cleaner than the one in the village. | Photo in front of the board,"Welcome to Kuburan Terunyan". Kuburan means "grave" in Indonesian. |
Most of the Indonesians are Islam and only Bali has 90% of the Hindu population. Usually Islams bury a dead body in the ground and Hindus in Bali use a cremation, so Trunyans who prefers an aerial burial are very special. Tourists can visit one of the three graveyards callsed "Sema Wayah" for people dieing a natural death. | ||
The aerial burial graveyard is about 50m from the counter. | After going up about 3m from this point, "Sema Wayah" suddenly showed up! | |
It was narrow and triangle bamboo cages which have dead bodies inside were lining up. The dead bodies have been mummified and surprisingly they do not have any smell!!!! Aromatic trees called "Taru Menyah" in the graveyard neutralizes smell of the dead bodies. | It can have the maximum 9 dead bodies inside of the cage. When a new dead body comes, the oldest one is moved to a " place to enshrine the skeltons". | |
Here is the "place to enshrine the skeltons". The front has the skulls and the bones of legs, arms and so on are stood inside. It was my first time to see human skeltons!! They were smaller than I expected! | This huge tree "Taru Menyah" is believed as the age of the tree for few hundred years. | |
After the visit of the graveyard, we took the boat again to go back to the landing place without stopping at the village. | It suddenly started raining on the way back! We took photos at the graveyard, so I felt that the souls of the dead people were angry at us. | I felt great security to get back to the HIRO-Chan car which was waiting for us at the boat boarding place. It already made me feel it was a dream to visit the legendary village. Trunyan. |
【Comment/highlight/Warning】 Each travel agency in Bali has their special or recommended tours, but this is the real special tour to visit a sightseeing spot not many people know about! I can promise you being able to make a boast of visiting a mysterious village, "Trunyan Village" between the mountains and the lake! It had troubles because of chaging tourists a huge amount fee for guiding, but as the village staffs say, now they have staffs for their sightseeing business who help and support visitors. In fact, the staffs were with usduring the inspection. You might feel anxious still, but a HIRO-Chan guide will be with you in this tour! One thing you might want to concern about is toilets which are average for residents in Bali but some tourists might feel uncomfortable to use. However, I can say that this tour is must to join if you are interested in culture, ruins and some adventure! You will be shocked by what you see and experience in Trunyan Village! |
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※ The actual tour has different order. ※ This report was created based on the experiences by the reportor. The contents of the tour might be changed without anu notice. ※ The report includes subjective opinions and comments by the reporter which do not guarantee for everyone. |