Bali The Island Of God

The Ancient Bali village

Bali, the flow of time is graceful and endless. Hence, few records have been kept, and it is uncertain when humans first arrived on the island. But there legends are often more vivid than any historical text, and Bali has her share to document the island's unique beginings.

It seems a mischievous prince (Manik Angkeran and Naga Besuki tales) was once banished to the east tip of Java by his father, the king, who then drew a line across the sand between them with his cane. The crevasse filled with seawater to create the once impassable Bali Strait between the two islands and separated them forever; some say the strait was filled with tears of sorrow rather than ocean saltwater. About the settling of Bali, however, there is a little human evidence prior the stoneinscription of the ninth century A.D. With the tenth century, though, came an era of Javanese influence, from culture and kingdoms to dawn of Hinduism on the island.

Around this time, the Balinese king Udayana held the throne of East Java, but his reign was overthrown by a ruler of Javanese dynasty based near modern-day Surabaya. Udayana's nephew prince Erlangga, who was 16 at the time, fled for his life to the woods of West Java. Feeling the weight of power debt owed to his uncle, Airlangga built up his military strength and political support to eventually win back the kingdom. He then began to built on his family link with neighboring Bali, where his mother has moved and remarried, in an exchange of lingual, religious, and artisitic traditions of which similarities between the islands are still seen today.

Upon Airlangga's death, for two centuries Bali reverted back to its semi-autonomous position until East Java Singosari Dynasty conquered the island under the infamous Kertanegara in 1294. But Kertanegara's rule lasted less than a decade; eight years later he was murdered, and Java's political structure crumble. From the remnants of Singosari arose the great Majapahit Kindom, founded by Kertanegara's son in law Raden Wijaya, with the famous prime misnister Gajah Mada. During this era, the chaos in Java's ruling house again left Bali to develop independently, this time under the eye of the Pejeng dynasty's King Dalem Bdeulu, whos kindom centered near Ubud. However, the island wa not far enough from East Java to escape the power of Majapahit, and Gajah Mada took over in 1343.

Moving the capital to Gelgel, in Klungkung regency, Majapahit remained influential on both Java and Bali for more than two centuries. Guided by various Dewa Agung, or Sacred kings, peace remained with the new Hindu parctises until injection of Islam into the island's traditions during the fourteenth century stung Majapahit into collapse. Sensing defeat and possible anarchy, the ruling powers of Bali headed east for Lombok, while many of East Java's most influential religious leaders and artisans are said to have fled their troubled homeland to settle in Bali.

It was nearly the seventeenth century when Europeans touched down in the island, their motives guided by dual interest of exloration and trade. In 1597, it was Dutch merchant Cornelious Hautmann who opened the way for exchange, but since Bali was rich neither in spices nor minerals and oils, her charm dwindled quickly for those whose eyes were only profits. Discounted was also breeding among Balinese rulers, resulting in splintered factions from the central kingdom of Klungkung, to which the Capital of Gelgel had moved in 1710. Over the next century, the Dutch slowly gathered power from the weakened Balinese rulers, finally landing military fleets along the north coast with a suave motive of salvaging shipwrecks offshores.

In 1904 the Dutch moved against dispute thea the Balinese had been ransacking their claim to a rich Chinese junk. When the king of Badung, near modern-day Denpasar, refused to pay the imposed fine of 3,000 silver dollars, the Dutch sentin heavy artilery to back up the threat. This onslaught of forces set off Puputan, or a fight untill the death, the term taken from a word  meaning "the end." On the fateful day, the Balinese bravely battled the Dutch, but they were both out of number in Power and outguned in technology.

More than 4000 Balinese were slauthered in this "suicidal" last stand for Denpasar, so called "Puputan Badung."  then the Dutch  then went to take the kindoms of Gianyar and Karangasem quite easily. The Klungkung and Tabanan Kingdom proved more dificult to conquer, but the Dutch eventually did gain power by forcing another puputan at Klungkun, while the Tabanan's King commited suicide rather than bend to the Dutch rule, as did the leaders of Gianyar and Karangasem.

For nearly 50 years, the Dutch kept a quite reign over the island, a time during which both art and the economy flourished. World war II upset the harmony as the Javanese took over the archipelago, but Holland nevertheless maintained its little Asian paradise island. Even after Soekarno declared Indonesian Independence in 1945, the Dutch still hung on to Bali, though an uprising at Marga masterminded by rebel leader Ngurah Rai cast a long shadow over the life of their power, so called Puputan Margarana. Finally, in 1949, they at last packed up and moved their influence elsewhere; however, many Dutch artists, politicians, and travellers stil reside on the islands today.

I Gusti Ngurah Rai
The Leader of Puputan Margarana

While for centuries the Balinese spirits stood strong against human invasions, nature was enforcing her own whow of power. For 18 years after Indonesian independence, the islands remained at peace; then suddenly, in 1963, Gunung Agung ( Agung Mountain) explode without mercy. Overflowing onto villages, rice terraces, the volcano spewed fire for several months in the fit the Balinese believed to be anger about the corruption of their island by new modern ways. 

Source: Adventuring In Indonesia by Holly S. Smith