The hills leading down to the lake were quite steep in places. We passed several under-powered trucks that couldn’t quite muscle their loads up the hills. Those relying on momentum to get them up had to make way for this funeral procession coming down the hill.

Lake Batur has an interesting characteristic. No one could quite explain why, but on the far side of the lake is a settlement with no roads leading to it. A particular type of tree grows there which apparently makes dead bodies not stink. Hence, many bodies are layed to rest above ground there.

In the Hindu tradition, after someone dies, they are reincarnated in a continuous flow of life, moving up or down a higherarchical scale of existence based roughly on karma. If they did positive things in the previous lifetime, they would be re-born human, and closer along the path to Nirvana. If less positive, they might be re-born a cow or dog, or some lesser beast. One condition, however, affects this cycle of re-birth: the previous corpse must be extinguished before the soul can re-enter the cycle of life again. For this reason many Hindus wish to be cremated in death; speeding up the re-birth cycle as the old body is quickly extinguished. If not cremated, the soul must wait for the corpse to decay naturally before the soul can be re-born.
Perhaps the destruction of the corpse happens faster above ground than below. I don’t know. But this lake, with it’s special trees on the Northeastern side, seem to be a unique place in Bali where bodies are layed to rest above ground,,, and for whatever reason never stink.

We passed several impressive temples along the way south, including this one.