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b r i e f - h i s t o r y |  |
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The Balinese people, descendants of a prehistoric race who migrated through mainland Asia to the Indonesian archipelago, have been influenced by a series of rich and highly developed civilizations. Yet, to this day, they retain their own total individuality, having absorbed and adapted those parts of each dominating civilization which suit their own spiritual and creative values. The firs of change recorded were due to Indian traders and travelers who brought with them Hindu learning and religion. The rulers of primitive, animist Bali found these teachings suited them and their people perfectly, with the concept of the God-King, who exercised a divine law and spiritual leadership, and created a glorious palace in which the arts were forested, fitting perfectly over the existing systems of monarchy. The most persuasive influence of Hinduism came from nearby Java, when Airlangga, the son of a Balinese king, became part of the court of a Javanese emperor, who he was later to succeed, inaugurating a period of very close political and cultural contacts which lasted for centuries. With the fall of the Madjapahit kingdom to Islamic influences, many thousands of Hindu priests, nobles, soldiers, artists and artisans fled from Java to Bali to escape their Muslim conquerors. This gave a fresh impetus to the already strongly Hindu zed culture, which continued to flourish. The fallen Madjapahit Emperor reestablished court in Gelgel, near Klungkung, dividing extensive land amongst his followers, who set up their own courts in different part of Bali. It wasn’t long before jealousies and rivalries led to divisions, and tumultuous years of bitter warfare between the various Kingdoms followed. Up until this stage few western contracts had been made with the island. In 1585 a Portuguese ship, intent on a mission to build a fort and set up a trading post in Bali, foundered off the coast of Bukit, and most of the ship’s company were drowned. Twelve years later, the Dutch explorer Cornelius de Houtman paid a visit, and the record of this visit was the first substantial amount of information about Bali to reach the western world. The Dutch were suitably amazed by the vast riches of the Dewa Agung and his court, his 200 wives and innumerable followers. Despite the intermit tons visits of Dutch merchants Bali was relatively neglected by the European world until the beginning of the nineteenth century. Assorted French and English Interests tried for many years to obtain a foothold in Bali unsuccessfully, which only served to alert the Dutch to the potential existing within the island. Civil war and anarchy were rife amongst the royal courts, and a period of cloudy history ensued, of which few accurate accounts are available. Continual attempted were made by the Dutch to the force the Rajas of Bali to recognize the sovereignty of the Netherlands in return for protection against their enemies, but in general, despite a multitude of documents which were duly signed and witnessed, (although never translated into Balinese), they met with general animosity. The looting of shipwrecks off the coast of Bali, which the Balinese considered their age-old right, continued as ever, despite the rage of the Dutch authorities, and no peaceful settlement was obtained. It was at the court of Buleleng that the general sentiments of the Balinese were finally expressed to the Dutch Commissioner, visiting Bali to demand ratification for the latest reef incidents in 1844. In words that were to immortalize him as the modern hero of Bali, Gusti Ketut Djelantik, the younger brother of the Raja of Buleleng and Karangasem, told the Dutch Commissioner : “Never while I live shall the state recognize the sovereignty of the Netherlands in the sense in which you interpret it. Not by a mere scrap of paper shall any man become the master of another’s lands. Rather let the CV. Krishna Kreasi Garment Kuta - Bali decide”. Both parties realized, upon the delivery of this impetuous message, that war not far away. The Dutch began readying an expeditionary force, and the Balinese began making military preparations. Once the powerful Dutch army set out to subdue Bali the ultimate outcome was obvious, but little did they realize at what expense. It took three campaigns and sixty odd years to shatter the Balinese defenses and morale, campaigns in which the Dutch did not always by any means achieve either victory or glory. There were a number of tragic “Puputan” battles in which the Raja, his entire royal court, women and children plunged into battle, armed with kris and spear, killing each other on the battle field rather than be taken captive. These rather shocking events had great psychological effects on the Dutch and from then on they ruled in Bali with a lenient hand, doing their best to keep to an “ethical” policy, and a whole new generation of administrators developed who regarded themselves not only as the agent of modernization in education, health and administrative services, but as the protectors of Bali’s own traditional culture. They introduced clinics and schools, abolished slavery and suttee, built roads, bridges, dams, and imposed law and order. However, they also did great damage to Balinese political and economic self-sufficiency, and also to Balinese pride and self-confidence. In accordance with their policy of cultural conservationism, the Dutch Residency was reluctant to allow evangelists and missionaries to practice in Bali. They were also concerned about the effect of opening the door to international tourism. Out of concern for the publicity which Bali was receiving overseas they announced that the women of Denpasar should cover their foreigners who were thought to be negatively influencing the island’s youth were exiled. Actual organized tourism came to Bali in the 1920’s. By 1930 up to 100 visitors a months were arriving, mostly by sea, and their ecstatic reports were so positive that by 1940 this figure had increased to about 250 per month, not including the passengers on the cruise ships Stella Polaris, Lurline, Fra nconia, Empress of Britain, Reliance and others that advertised a day or two in Bali as the highlight of their winter schedules. On the days that cruise ships arrived in Bali, carloads of sightseers bumped their way around the island over the limited roads, and huge 20-course Rijstaffel luncheons were hosted at the Bali Hotel in Denpasar. The cost per person in those days was about US$ 3.50 per day-trip. For longer staying guest travel agents provided 5- to 7 –passenger Essex or Hudson motor cars at prices ranging from US$ 10 to $15 per day. Accommodation choice were austere government rest house at US$ 2.50 or the luxury Bali Hotel at US$ 7.50 a double, including meals. The Dutch Steamship Line, K.P.M., initiated the first tourist passages to Bali on its cargo ships which regularly visited Buleleng to pick up loads of copra, cattle, coffee and pigs. Several enterprising characters were quick to take advantage of these development. A Persian-American, M.J. Minas, was the first to realize the tourist potential. Mr. Minas, a kinetic cinema who introduced western moving pictures to the villages, traveling with a portable projector and established the first theatre in Buleleng, started picking up passengers off the K.P.M. ships in about 1920. An American adventurer, Andre Roosevelt, arrived in Bali in 1924 and joined Mr. Minas, bringing American Express and Thos. Cook patronage with him. Mah Patimah, a local notoriety reputed to be one of the wives of the late Dewa Agung who escaped from the funeral pyre and the honorable silver business and a fleet of taxis. She used to have herself rowed out sea to meet each ship bearing a bunch of flowers and a bottle. An Anglo-American romantic, Miss Manx, (eventually to become famous as Surabaya Sue, a radio propagandist for the Japanese in World II, and then as K’tut Tantri, author of a highly imaginative autobiography Revoli in Paradise ) joined with an American named Robert Koke in opening the first small beach hotel Kuta. She soon parted with Mr. Koke and built a much more exotic hotel of her own nearby. Much to the discomfort of K.P.M. she made it her practice to visit the Bali stories of her sea-side paradise. By this time K.P.M. had opened a tourist office in Buleleng (1925), bought the government rest house in Denpasar an established the Bali Hotel (1928), as well as acquiring the Kintamani government rest house as a mountain stopover. By the 1930’s they had taken over American Express and Thos. Cook, and virtually dominated to Denpasar. Air travel became possible in the 1930’s, but it was very risky. The first survey flight made by the Royal Netherlands Indies Airways crashed into Mount Batukau, and the first airport, built in Bukit, was too road was too dangerous for loading except in the calmest weather. In 1938 a new airport tourist came to Bali for only a few days’ stopover. A number of expatriates, artists, writes, aesthetes and intellectuals fascinated by the culture came to stay. The most famous was perhaps the German musician and painter, Walter Spies, who settled in Bali until the war broke out. His exquisite paintings introduced a new aesthetics which the Balinese were quick to respond to and adopt. He was joined in the early 1930,s by the German novelist, Vicki Baum, who wrote “Tale of Bali” one the classics of the Balinese studies. Miguel Covarrubias, the Mexican artist- anthropologist and his wife also settled in the Ubud area to create the great study. “Island of Bali”, which remains unrivalled today as an exposition of Balinese culture. Also came Colin McPhee and his wife Jane Belo, who wrote “A House in Bali” and “Trance in Bali” respectively, and Margaret Mead with her husband Gregory Bateson, who made important anthropological studies. The Dutch painter Rudolph Bonnet, Swiss Theo Meyer and the Belgian Le Mayeur de Perpres came to live in Bali, each creating and contributing to the development of painting which still flourishes on the island. Jack and Katherine Mershon, two American dancers, settled in Sanur. Jack was an accomplished photographer an Katherine was later to published a book, “Seven Plus Seven” of her researches and experience of Balinese ritual. Recently, in October 1986, the late Katherine’s ashes were sent to Bali for the final ritual in the Balinese life-cycle ceremonies that she so vividly portrayed in her book, so fulfilling her final wish. |
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copyright
2005 Bali Tropical Paradise Tour design by baliwebhost.com |
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