Isle of the Dead: A Study of Trunyan Cemetery (Bali)

Introduction

The expression “Lonely in a crowd” indicates how the quality of relationships matters, and signifies a much deeper existence from postmodern perspectives where people seek for feelings shared by others. This aspect represents the roots of reciprocity as it was studied by ethnographers in non-western cultures (Malinowski, 1926). In this context, feeling of this calibre are driven by the so called dark tourism sites (Biran, Poria, & Oren, 2011; Stone & Sharpley, 2008). Although gaining in popularity, dark sites wake up a profound ethical discussion in public opinion (Tzanelli 2016). While a family of theories understand that dark sites express an emotional arousal which links community with pastime, addressing some of the existential questions of human existence (Lennon & Foley 2000; Raine 2013, Biran & Hyde, 2013; Cohen 2011; Podoshen 2013; Stone 2011); others claim beyond the quest for death, underlies a sentiment of morbid voyeurism which is politically manipulated to perpetuate the legitimacy of elite, even in contexts of disasters and trauma (Bowman & Pezzullo, 2009; Hartmann 2014; Tzanelli 2016; Korstanje 2016). Likely, the Trunyan cemetery in Bali offers a fertile ground to overcome the limitations dark tourism literature shows. Despite this cemetery attracts both types of segments, overseas and domestic tourists, it is difficult to frame this space into the model of Seaton and Lennon (2004). As P. Stone (2006) puts it, dark tourism takes a wider spectrum which oscillates from battlefronts memorials which draws much attention from media, to cemeteries, where any intrusion is seen as a clear violation to private life. In this respect, B. Heidelberg (2015) dissects the case of Amityville US to understand many factors are involved at time of adopting dark tourism as the first option. Many communities, even, are far from the needs of reminding the event, and opted to silence it in the dust of oblivion. Korstanje has gathered substantial evidence during his fieldwork in Cromañón, Buenos Aires (Argentina) to confirm some communities see in tourism as an activity that very well may corrupt their memory of deads (Korstanje 2015), while in other cases, dark sites include the colloquially named perilous places, houses of horror, fields of fatality, tours of torment, and themed Thanatos, are theoretically on the dark tourism spectrum (Sharpley & Stone, 2009; Stone, 2006; Bowman & Pezzullo, 2009). Death tourism, which is defined as activities visiting unique and macabre sites such as cemeteries, appears not only to encourage human contemplation on death of the self (Stone, 2012; Korstanje and George, 2015), but also to revolve around how the death sites (those visited by tourists) serve as a distraction from one’s own mortality (Korstanje & George, 2015). Coupled with the conversation on social media (Sigala, Christou & Gretzel, 2012; Nikiforova, 2013) from a postmodern perspective, i.e. the phenomenon of an online community generating e-comments and e-word of mouth (e-WOM) (e.g. see Gretzel & Yoo, 2008; Yoo & Gretzel, 2008, 2010, 2011; Xiang and Gretzel, 2010),this phenomenon of death sites in particular and the surprisingly popular dark tourism in general, leads to question whether it is tourist-demand or attraction-driven (Stone, 2006; Wilkinson, 2010).