Travel Guide Trunyan

This village located on the slopes of Gunung Abang is accessible only by boat. Trunyan has always enjoyed a certain curiosity since it is considered one of the last Bali-aga villages. " Bali-Aga " refers to the indigenous Balinese, settled in Bali before the Javanese and Sumatran conquests, since the first Buddhist influences in Bali are dated around the seventh century. Some agree that it was the Srivijaya empire, with a community of more than 1,000 teachers and disciples, which had already spread Buddhist doctrines and established monasteries throughout the nearby islands, including Bali.The local chiefs or rulers would have submitted to the new ritual practices which consisted in deifying the chiefs or kings (by assigning them a divine relationship) and purifying their souls after their death. These new rites would not have reached all the surface of Bali and some would have preserved their animist practices and their own cult of the ancestors. We can also realize the veracity of these animist practices attested by the presence of megalithic stones in the Pura Gedé Pancering Jagat, and the existence of a statue (Betara Da Tonta) of more than 4 m high in an altar of the same temple.Every three years, a ceremony takes place in the Gede Pancering Jagat temple which consists in covering the statue of Betara Da Tonta with honey, lime and gold jewels. No foreigners are allowed to attend.In the village itself, there are still 2 bali-aga houses and an old waringin, or Banyan, tree that is said to be over 1,000 years old. A little further on, the Kuban cemetery is accessible only by the lake. The dead bodies are neither buried nor burned, they are left to decompose in the open air in bamboo cages protected from scavengers. On several terraces are exposed skulls and bones.