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Travel to Trunyan

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Women forbidden to go to to Sema Wayah

TRUNYAN village, Bangli County is well known by both local and foreign travellers. This ancient Balinese village located on the edge of Lake Batur, in Kintamani, retains some unique traditions. One of their most well known traditions is their way of burying their dead, or rather not burying them – they are just plafced in an open shallow grave. What is it that makes this Balinese village so special?
The journey from DEnpasar takes about two hours, which brings you to Kedisan from where Lake Batur must be crossed to arrive at the Trunyan cemetery. A 25 Minute speedboat ride from Kedisan Pier, takes you across Lake Batur to Trunyan village from where the cemetery can be reached in about 10 minutes. Headman of Trunyan, Wayan Arjana, explained that all the Trunyan village graves are is divided into three types, namely the sema wayah, sema nguda and sema bantas. Sema wayah is intended specifically for the burial the bodies of public figures and ordinary people, whose bodies are intact and die naturally. Sema nguda is intended to burial of the bodies of babies and adults who are not married, while the sema bantas is intended specifically for the burial of deformed bodies and those die of unnatural causes (such as accident or suicide). The three types of graves, he said are in different locations and far apart.
He added that the sema wayah graves are located at the edge of the lake, around 500 meters from the village center and is the most popular grave site with travelers. At the sema wayah, travelers can see the bodies that have been placed in open graves that are only 20 cm deep.
The bodies are only covered by fabric and fenced in by bamboo blades called ancak saji. Even though the corpses are buried under ground, travelers will not smell any stenche exuded from the bodies at the cemetery. The reason is that, at the sema wayah grows a taru menyan or menyan tree. It is said that this tree absorbs and neutralizes the stenche of the rotting bodies. Trunyan village was named after the taru menyan tree .
When a burial procession takes place, the women of Trunyan village are forbidden from going into the area of sema wayah. They can only accompany the procession to the edge of the lake. According to local beliefs, if women go into the area of sema wayah they will be afflicted by a disaster. “Thus, all this time our women have never known about the conditions of the cemetery here” he explained.
Another unique feature of the sema wayah cemetery, is that, there are only seven graves that are placed side by side. The grave at the easternmost end is intended for public figures, while the remaining graves are for ordinary people. The grave at sema wayah never increases or decreases because when there is a new body to be buried, the old one will be removed and replaced with the new one. The bones of the older bodies are then be put in a special place not far from the rows of the graves.
Considering that the local people here have been following this tradition since time immemorial, it is no wonder that such a large number of skulls and bones have accumulated at the sema wayah cemetery. There are so many hat some have even piled up at the entrance of sema wayah. (BTN/kmb)www.bali-travelnews.com
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