GEOGRAPHY

An Island Built by Volcanoes

Every aspect of Bali's geography and ecology is influenced by the towering range of volcanic peaks that dominate the island. They have created its landforms, periodically regenerated its soils,and helped to produce the dramatic downpours which provide the island with life-giving water. The Balinese recognize these geophysical facts of life, and the island's many volcanoes, lakes and springs are considered by them to be sacred.

Bali is continually being formed by volcanic action. The island lies over a major subduction zone where the Indo-Australian plate collides with the rigid Sunda plate with explosive results. A violent eruption of Mt. Agung (3,142 m before the eruption; 3,014 in now) in 1963 showered the mountain's upper slopes with ash and debris that slid off as mudflows, killing thousands of people and laying waste to irrigation networks and rice fields that had been built up over many years. Mt Batur (1,717 in) to the west is also active, with greater frequency but less violence.

A mild, equatorial climate

Lying between 8 and 9 degrees south of the equator, Bali has a short, hot wet season and a longer, cooler dry season. The mountains are wet year round, averaging 2,500 to 3,000 mm (100 to 120 inches) of rain annually, with warm days and cool nights. The lowlands are hotter and drier, but fresh and persistent winds make the climate less oppressive here than elsewhere in the equatorial zone.

The wet season lasts from November to March, and though there are only five or six hours of sunshine a day, this is also the hottest time of year (30-31" C by day, 24-25o C at night). The dry season is from April to October, when southeasterly winds blow up from the cool Australian interior (28-29o C by day, and a pleasant 23" C at night), with seven or eight hours of sunshine daily.

By itself, the rainfall in the lowlands is not enough for wet rice cultivation. In other parts of Indonesia, particularly Java, flood waters following heavy rains can be collected behind dams, but the steep, narrow valleys of Bali offer no good dam sites. Over the centuries, the Balinese have instead devised many sophisticated irrigation systems which optimize the water available from rain and rivers.

Bali's volcanic soils are in fact not naturally well-suited to wet rice cultivation. They are deep, finely textured and well-drained, so water soaks through them rapidly. While this reduces the risk of floods, it wastes precious water. Paradoxically, the solution is vigorous and repeated plugging, which actually renders the soils less permeable. Irrigated areas, moreover, receive a supply of nutrients from river water enriched by domestic effluents.

Man has extensively modified the natural vegetation of Bali. The moist primary forest which is its natural vegetation now covers only 1,010 sq km or 19 percent of Bali's total area, mainly in the western mountains and along the arc of volcanic peaks from Agung to Batukau. About a quarter of the forest is protected in four nature reserves, the largest of which is Bali Barat National Park (763 sq km. Further reserves are planned to protect another quarter of the island's forests.

An island of great contrasts

Bali may be small, but its physical geography is complex, creating an island of great contrasts. In simple outline, three major areas emerge - the mountains, the coastal lowlands and the limestone fringes. The mountains are lofty and spectacular, dominated by Mt Agung and its neighbors, Abang and Batur. Dramatic lava flows on the northeastern flanks of Agung are Bali's newest landforms, showing what the entire island probably looked like a million years ago.

The western mountains provide the last major wildlife sanctuary. Cultivation is here limited to coastal areas that are very dry in the north, but more prosperous and fertile in the south. Coconut groves, cattle pastures and rain fed fields line the foothills while rice fields are found along the coast. Unique canals vanish into foothill tunnels excavated as protection from landslides. In the extreme southwest, the new Palasari Dam forms the island's only manmade lake. On Bali's western tip, the coral reefs and clear waters around Menjangan Island provide fantastic scuba diving.

The southern lowlands formed the cradle of Balinese civilization. Here it is possible to grow two or more irrigated rice crops per year. Based on this agricultural surplus, eight small but powerful kingdoms arose, symmetrically lining the parallel north-south river valleys that shaped their early growth.

In contrast to the south, the north coast hosted only a single kingdom, centered on the less extensive but equally productive rice lands around Singaraja. Terracing here continues well into the hills, on slopes which elsewhere would be regarded as a severe erosion hazard. In Bali, these terraces stand as firm as masonry because of peculiar clay minerals within the soil. Further east, the dry coast is relieved by several major springs which emerge from fissures in the lava flows. The spring water is used for irrigating table grapes, a crop that thrives here.

The southern limestone fringes stand in complete contrast to the rest of Bali. These are dry and difficult to cultivate. The Bukit Peninsula south of the airport has impressive southern cliffs and many large caves. Across the sea to the east, Nusa Ceningan, Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Penida are dry limestone islands with scrubby vegetation and shallow soils. Villagers on Penida have built ingenious catchments to collect rainwater. Springs also emerge from the base of its high southern cliffs, and villagers scramble down precarious scaffolds to collect water. just as water is the measure of richness in the interior, so is it the measure of survival around the periphery. In Bali, water is truly sacred.

AGRICULTURE

Rice Culture:
Nourishing Body and Soul

Nature has endowed Bali with ideal conditions for the development of agriculture. The divine volcanoes, still frequently active, provide the soils with great fertility. Copious rainfall and numerous mountain springs supply many areas of the island with ample water year-round. And a long dry season, brought on by the southeasterly monsoon, brings plentiful sunshine for many months of the year. Bali is, as a result, one of the most productive traditional agricultural areas on earth, which has in turn made possible the development of a highly intricate civilization on the island since very early times.

Rice as the staff of life

Wet-rice cultivation is the key to this agricultural bounty. 'Me greatest concentration of irrigated rice fields is found in southern-central Bali, where water is readily available from spring-fed streams. Here, and in other well-watered areas where wet-rice culture predominates, rice is planted in rotation with so-called palawija cash crops such as soybeans, peanuts, onions, chili peppers and other vegetables. In the drier regions corn, taro, tapioca and beets are cultivated.

Rice is, and has always been, the staff of life for the Balinese. As in other Southeast Asian languages, rice is synonymous here with food and eating. Personified as the "divine nutrition" in the form of the goddess Bhatari Sri, rice is seen by the Balinese to be part of an all-compassing life force of which humans partake.

Rice is also an important social force. 'Me phases of rice cultivation determine the seasonal rhythm of work as well as the division of labor between men and women within the community. Balinese respect for their native rice varieties is expressed in countless myths and in colorful rituals in which the life cycle of the female rice divinity are portrayed from the planting of the seed to the harvesting of the grain. Rice thus represents "culture" to the Balinese in the dual sense of cultura and cultus - cultivation and worship.

Irrigation cooperatives (subak)

Historical evidence indicates that since the 11th century, all peasants whose fields were fed by the same water course have belonged to a single subak or irrigation cooperative. This is a traditional institution which regulates the construction and maintenance of waterworks, and the distribution of life-giving water that they supply. Such regulation is essential to efficient wet-rice cultivation on Bali, where water travels through very deep ravines and across countless terraces in its journey from the mountains to the sea.

The subak is responsible for coordinating the planting of seeds and the transplanting of seedlings so as to achieve optimal growing conditions, as well as for organizing ritual offerings and festivals at the subak temple. All members are called upon to participate in these activities, especially at feasts honoring the rice goddess Sri.

Subak cooperatives exist entirely apart from normal Balinese village institutions, and a single village's rice fields may fall under the jurisdiction of more than one subak, depending on local drainage patterns. The most important technical duties undertaken by the subak are the construction and maintenance of canals, tunnels, aqueducts, dams and water locks.

Other crops

One often gets the impression that nothing but wet-rice is grown on Bali, because of the unobstructed vistas offered by extensive irrigated rice fields between villages. This is not so. Out of a total of 563,286 hectares of arable land on Bali, just 108,200 hectares or about 19 percent is irrigated rice fields (sawah). Another 157,209 hectares are non-irrigated dry fields (tegalan) producing one rain-fed crop per year. A further 134,419 hectares are forested lands mostly belonging to the state, and 99,151 hectares are devoted to cash crop gardens (kebun) with tree and bush culture. Compared with the figures for 1980, a gradual decrease in the total area under cultivation may be noted, resulting mainly from population pressures and tourism development. This includes a real estate and building boom in the coastal resort areas and tourist handicraft villages such as Celuk and Ubud.

Other crops include Balinese coffee, famous the world over for its delicate aroma and still an important export commodity. Lately, the production of cloves, vanilla and tobacco has also stepped up, and in mountainous regions such as Bedugul, new vegetable varieties are under intensive cultivation to supply the tourist trade. Other export commodities include copra and related products of the coconut palm.

For subsistence cultivators, the coconut palm in fact remains, as before, a "tree of life" that can be utilized from the root right up to the tip. It provides building materials (the wood, leaves and leaf ribs), fuel (the leaves and dried husks), kitchen and household items (shells and fibers for utensils), as well as food and ritual objects (vessels, offerings, plaited objects, food and drink).

The 'green revolution'

Recent changes in Balinese agricultural practices have brought about fundamental changes in the relationship of the Balinese to their staple crop. Rice production can no longer be expanded by bringing new lands under cultivation. Nor is mechanization a desirable alternative, given the current surplus of labor on the island. For these reasons, the official agricultural policy since the mid1970s has been to improve crop yields on existing fields through biological and chemical means.

The cultivation of new, fast-growing, high yielding rice varieties, in concert with the application of chemical fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides, lies at the core of the government's agricultural development program (Bimas). Further aims are to improve methods of soil utilization and irrigation, and to set up new forms of cooperatives to provide credit and market surplus harvests. Over 80 percent of Bali's wet-rice fields are now subject to these intensification steps.

Since 1984, Indonesia has been able to meet most of its own rice needs, thus relieving some of the pressures responsible for the original "green revolution." As a result, an ecologically more meaningful "green evolution" is now possible, and rice varieties better suited to local conditions and better able to find an anchor in the traditional system of faith are being introduced to the island.

Since 1988, many fields now display new altars for Sri, and the hope is that her rice cult one of the basic elements of Balinese civilization and culture - will remain strong well into the future.

BIRDING

An Insider Looks at Ball's Colorful Birds

Well, did you see the birds in Bali
When you were staying there last year,
Or was your time assigned entirely
To seeing sights and swilling beer,
Sifting sand or shifting gear?

The hobby of bird watching is above all a delightful recreation, and no longer merely the province of collectors and academics. And what better place than Bali to indulge the urge? What pleasanter island, what wilder domain, and what fresher air in which to nurture it?

We are lucky in Indonesia. The zoogeographic range embraces not only both hemispheres but also the Oriental and Australian regions, which are divided by the Wallace Line running between the islands of Bali and Lombok. Extending from the mountain forests of Sumatra to those of New Guinea, there rests a largely unpeopled clime and an unrivalled diversity of avian life.

Bali alone boasts something like 300 different bird species, including of course migrants, from massive Hornbills and Storks to diminutive Sunbirds and Spider hunters - to say nothing of one of the world's rarest and most beautiful birds, the Rothschild's Myna (also known as the Bali Starling), which occurs only in Bali.

Our view of such marvels, moreover, need not be confined to the aviary. There lies the wild, readily accessible to all, even to those who inhabit, for example, the crowded tourist beach resorts or the city of Denpasar whence an hour's drive at most to Ubud or Bedugul and indeed there is more than enough to feast the eyes here without the need to venture beyond the garden gate.

Within my very own garden situated in the central foothills of Bali, I have seen something like eighty different types of bird. On one side, there extends a dense curtain of greenery, mainly of flowering shrubs, coconut palms and fruit trees, with here and there a shady acacia and clump of bamboo, the whole surmounted by a towering cotton tree. This is the resort of a host of arboreal birds, the most remarkable being the Black aped Orioles and Ashy Drongos; the former a glorious golden-yellow with a broad black band through the eye to the nape, and the latter an unrelieved dark gray with deeply forked tails, always prominently perched and admirable for their acrobatic hawking of insects.

Beneath the canopy, the Magpie Robins endlessly disport and vent a rich vocabulary of imprecations and sweet fluting calls, whilst the restless Pied Fantail dashes to and fro, pirouettes and trips the light fantastic, characteristically flirting its tail the while. Always in evidence are the ubiquitous Yellow-vented Bulbuls, chattering and chortling, as they race each other from palm to palm.

Of the smaller birds, the most commonly occurring are the Bar-winged Prinias and Ashy Tailorbirds, alternately creeping and darting through the bushes in search of grubs; the vivid Scarlet-headed Flower peckers and metallic blue-throated Olive backed Simbirds, busily rifling the hibiscus blossoms to sate their appetite for minute insects and nectar; and the cheerful green yellow Common Iora, which hops about in the thick crown of a rambutan tree, now and again betraying its presence with a long drawn-out mellow whistle, slowly increasing in pitch and ending abruptly on a lower note: tweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-tyou.

To the east is an open expanse of terraced rice fields, gently ascending to a ridge. Andhere, according to the season, is the haunt of Watercock and Cinnamon Bittern, of Ruddy breasted Crake and flocks of stately snowy white Plumed and Little Egrets. Consorting with the latter and usually distinguishable by the buffy-rufous patches of their nuptial plumage, are the Cattle Egrets; while scattered about in frozen attitudes, some Javan Pond Herons stare warily at passers-by, the breeding birds richly adorned in buff and cinnamon and black, which is curiously transformed to white when they erupt into flight.

Over flying the fields are Swift lets and Swallows, and tiny tumbling Fantail-Warblers, whilst swarms of marauding Munias wheel this way and that to escape the clappers, before descending in a mass to ravage another patch of unguarded grain. There patiently sits the little Pied Bushchat, rather resembling a miniature Magpie Robin in appearance, and likewise perched and keenly espying its prey, is the spectacularly caparisoned Javan Kingfisher, whose radiant presence makes such an indelible impression on all who behold it. Like others of its tribe, it may be found along the river-beds of verdant ravines, but it also frequents the paddy-fields where it may more readily be observed, perched atop a slender pole or the thatched roof of a small shrine, sacred to Dewi Sri, goddess of agriculture and fertility.

To live thus, surrounded by birds, not to say invaded by them, is a joy and an ever lasting revelation. Other regular visitors include the Magpie Robins, those conspicuously pied and vocal denizens of all the gardens of the East. In pops the Ashy Tailorbird, insignificant mousy gray thing, refocus face peering inquisitively about, tail cocked vertically. The coast is clear. Bounding sprightly gaited over the boards, it hops on a cushion, inserts its narrow pointed bill, and extracts a scrap of kapok stuffing. A cautious backward look, more poking and prodding till the bill stuffed with white fluff, for all the world like the thief that it is and sporting instant whiskers and a beard in order to avoid detection. A final cursory glance, and away to add some comfort to a miraculously stitched leafy nest in the hedgerow.

Then what are those elegant little olivegrey-brown birds, clambering about in the variegated copper-leaf and croton bushes yonder, every so often emitting a plaintive: twee-wee-wee, succeeded by utterances of quite explosive force? Notice the long white tipped tail feathers, white throats and upper breasts, twin white wing bars, amber eyes and lemon-yellow bellies. They are the Bar winged Prinias or Wren-Warblers, which seem to thrive in any habitat from montane forest to coastal mangrove, and especially in ornamental gardens. Yet their geographic range is confined to Sumatra, Java and Bali. Nowhere else may they be found

EARLY HISTORY

Artifacts and Early Foreign Influences

The early history of Bali can be divided into a prehistoric and an early historic period. The former is marked by the arrival of Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) migrants beginning perhaps three to four thousand years ago. The Austronesians were hardy seafarers who spread from Taiwan through the islands of Southeast Asia to the Pacific in a series of extensive migrations that spanned several millennia. The Balinese are thus closely related, culturally and linguistically, to the peoples of the Philippines and Oceania as well as the neighboring islands of Indonesia.

Stone sarcophagi, seats and altars

Though precious little is known about the long, formative stages of Balinese prehistory, artifacts discovered around the island provide intriguing clues about Bali's early inhabitants. Prehistoric grave sites have been found in western Bali, the oldest probably dating from the first several centuries B.C. The people buried here were herders and farmers who used bronze, and in some cases iron, to make implements and jewelry. Prehistoric stone sarcophagi have also been discovered, mainly in the mountains. They often have the shape of huge turtles carved at either end with human and animal heads with bulging eyes, big teeth and protruding tongues.

Stone seats, altars and big stones dating from early times are still to be found today in several Balinese temples. Here, as elsewhere in Indonesia, they seem to be connected with the veneration of ancestral spirits who formed (and in many ways still form) the core of Balinese religious practices.

Also apparently connected with ancestor worship is one of Southeast Asia's greatest prehistoric artifacts - the huge bronze kettledrum known as the "Moon of Pejeng." Still considered to have significant power, it is now enshrined in a temple in the central Balinese village of Pejeng, in Gianyar Regency. More than 1.5 meters in diameter and 1.86 meters high, it is decorated with frogs and geometric motifs in a style that probably originated around Dongson, in what is now northern Vietnam. This is the largest of many such drums discovered in Southeast Asia.

Hindu-Javanese influences

It is assumed (but without proof so far) that the Balinese were in contact with Hindu and Buddhist populations of Java from the early part of the 8th century A.D. onwards, and that Bali was even conquered by a Javanese king in A.D. 732. This contact is responsible for the advent of writing and other important Indian cultural elements that had come to Java along the major trading routes several centuries earlier. Indian writing, dance, religion and architecture were to have a decisive impact, blending with existing Balinese traditions to form a new and highly distinctive culture.

Stone and copper plate inscriptions in Old Balinese are known from A.D. 882 onwards, coinciding with finds of Hindu- and Buddhist inspired statues, bronzes, ornamented caves, rock-cut temples and bathing places. These are found especially in areas close to rivers, ravines, springs and volcanic peaks.

At the end of the 10th and the beginning of the 11th centuries there were close, peaceful bonds with Indianized kingdoms in east Java, in particular with the realm of Kadiri (10th century A.D. to 1222). Old Javanese was thereafter the prestige language, used in all

Balinese inscriptions, evidence of a strong Javanese cultural influence. In 1284, Bali is said to have been conquered by King Krtanagara of the east Javanese Singhasari dynasty (1222-1292). It is not certain whether the island was actually colonized at this time, but many new Javanese elements manifest themselves in the Balinese art of this period.

According to a Javanese court chronicle known as the Nagarakrtagama (dated 1365), Bali was conquered and colonized in 1343 by Javanese forces under Gajah Mada, the legendary general or patih of the powerful Majapahit kingdom who established hegemony over east Java and all seaports bordering the Java Sea during the mid-14th century. It is said that Gajah Mada, accompanied by contingents of Javanese nobles, called aryas, came to Bali to subdue a rapacious Balinese king. A Javanese vassal ruler was installed at a new capital at Samprangan, near presentday lUungkung in east Bali, and the nobles were granted apanages in the surrounding areas. A Javanese court and courtly culture were thus introduced to the island.

The separation of Balinese society into four caste groups is ascribed to this period, with the satriya warrior caste ruling from Samprangan. Those who did not wish to participate in the new system fled to remote mountain areas, where they lived apart from the mainstream. These are the so-called 11 original Balinese," the Bali Aga or Bali Mula.

Around 1460, the capital moved to nearby Gelgel, and the powerful "Grand Lord" or Dewa Agung presided over a flowering of the Balinese arts and culture. Over time, however, the descendants of the aryas became increasingly independent, and from around 1700 began to form realms in other areas.

Reconstructing the past

Because ancestor veneration plays such an important role in Balinese religion, many groups possess family genealogies, known as babad. In such texts, the brahmana, satriya and wesya clans trace their ancestry to Majapahit kings, while the Bali Aga claim descent from even earlier Javanese rulers. There are also groups which claim as their ancestors Javanese Hindus and Buddhists who are said to have taken refuge in Bali from invading Muslim forces. Ibis probably gave rise to the story that entire Hindu-Buddhist populations of Java, with their valuables, books and other cultural baggage, fled to Bali after the fall of Majapahit. We do not know if this is true, as even up to the present day it is a common for families to re-write and improve their babad, depending on their circumstances.

TRADITIONAL KINGDOMS

History in a Balinese Looking Glass

Most of what we know about Bali's traditional kingdoms comes from the Balinese themselves. Scores of masked dance dramas, family chronicles and temple rituals focus on great figures and events of the Balinese past. In such accounts, the broad outline of Bali's history from the 12th up to the 18th centuries is an epic tale of the coming of great men to power. These were the royal and priestly founders of glorious dynasties - some mad, some fearsome, some lazy and some proud - who together with their retainers and family members determined the fate of Bali's kingdoms, as well as shaping the situation and status of the island's present-day inhabitants.

It is possible to see the Balinese as both indifferent to history and yet utterly obsessed by it. Indifferent because they are not very interested in the "what happened and why" that make up what we know as history, while at the same time they are obsessed by stories concerning their own illustrious ancestors.

Balinese "history" is in fact a set of stories that explain how their extended families came to be where they are. Such stories may explain, for example, how certain ancestors moved from an ancient court center to a remote village, or how they were originally of aristocratic stock although their descendants no longer possess princely titles. In short, they provide evidence of a continuing connection between the world of the ancestors and present-day Bali.

Major events are thus invariably seen in terms of the actions of great men (and occasionally women), yet to view them as mere individuals is deceptive. They are divine ancestors, and as such their actions embody the fate of entire corporate groups. Above all, they are responsible for having created the society one finds in Bali today.

Each family possesses its own genealogy that somehow fits into the overall picture. Some focus on kings, their followers or priests as key ancestors. Others see the family history in terms of village leaders, blacksmiths (powerful as makers of weapons and tools) or villagers who resisted and escaped the advance of new rulers.

The fact that such stories sometimes agree with one another should not necessarily be taken as proof that this is what really happened. There are many gaps, loose ends and inconsistencies - often pointing to the fact that generations of priests, princes and scribes have recast these tales about the past to serve their own ends. 'Me stories must be retold, nevertheless, in order to know what is open to dispute.

Ancestors and origins

The story begins in ancient Java, in the legendary kingdoms of Kadiri and Majapahit where Javanese culture is regarded (by Javanese, Balinese and Western scholars alike) as having reached its apex. From these rich sources flowed the great literature, art and court rituals of Hindu Java, that were later transplanted to Bali.

One of the prime reasons for holding such rituals was to elevate Hindu-Javanese leaders to the status of god-like kings who were in contact with the divine forces of the cosmos. As these Javanese kingdoms expanded to take over Bali, they brought with them their art, literature and cosmology. At the same time, the Javanese also absorbed vital elements of Balinese culture, eventually spreading some of these throughout the archipelago and elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

The great Airlangga, descendant of Bali's illustrious King Udayana, is said to have ascended the east Javanese throne and to have founded the powerful kingdom of Kadiri in the 11th century. Thus it was proper that his descendants would later install priests and warriors from Java to rule over Bali. Foremost among these was the son of a priest, Kresna Kapakisan, who became the first king of Gelgel (now in Klungkung Regency) in the mid-15th century.

The transition to Gelgel from a previous court center at Samprangan (now in Gianyar Regency) was made by a cockfighting member of the Kapakisan dynasty, who became embroiled in a struggle for the throne and attempts to save the kingdom from the mismanagement of his elder brother, or so the account goes. There is little reason to doubt this version of events, yet there are huge gaps in the story of how power moved from Java to Gelgel in previous centuries, and the relation of the Kapakisan line to earlier kings appointed by the Javanese conquerors.

Bali's "Golden Age"

Most Balinese trace their ancestry back to a group of courtiers clustering about the great King Baturenggong, a descendant of Kapakisan, who is seen to have presided over a Balinese "Golden Age" in the 16th century. Balinese accounts describe him as: "A king of great authority, a true lion of a man, who was wise in protecting his subjects and attending to their needs, and an outstanding warrior of great mystical power, always victorious in war." European records do not mention him by name, but attest to the wealth and influence of a Balinese kingdom which at this time had a more centralized and unified system of government than was the case in subsequent centuries.

Of equal if not greater importance in the collective Balinese memory of this era is the super-priest Nirartha. He is remembered for his great spiritual powers - a man who could stop floods, control the energies of sexuality through meditation, and write beautiful poetry to move men's' souls. In the genealogies it was he who founded the main line of Balinese high priests - those whose worship is directed to Siwa, Lord of the Gods. His name is associated with many of Bali's greatest temples, and a corpus of literature produced by himself and his followers.

In Balinese eyes, the descendants of King Baturenggong and Nirartha presided over a period of decline, even though Baturenggong's son, Seganing, upheld some of his father's greatness and, after the texts, fathered the ancestors of Bali's key royal lines. Balinese sources tell of the destruction of Gelgel by a rebellious chief minister, Gusti Agung Maruti, who was distinguished by possessing a tail and an over weaning thirst for power. After his defeat by princes who established themselves in the north and south of the island, new independent kingdoms arose from the ashes of Gelgel. The Gelgel dynasty itself survived, albeit in a much reduced state, as the kingdom of Klungkung - maintaining some of its moral and symbolic authority over the rest of the island, but having direct control of only its immediate area.

Slave trading and king-making

To the outside world, as to later Balinese writers, the period following Gelgel's Golden Age was one of chaos - in which fractious kings ruled from courts scattered about the island. This was not necessarily so in contemporary Balinese terms, where the new states must have represented a more dynamic way of conducting the affairs of state and external trade. Bali became famous on the international scene at this time as a source of slaves, savage fighters, beautiful women and skilled craftsmen.

According to traditional accounts, the fate and status of present-day Balinese families was also largely determined at this time. Kingdoms rose and fell with alarming rapidity, clans split and were demoted or even enslaved, aspiring princes waged war and organized lavish ceremonies. Such human dramas were punctuated by a series of natural disasters, such as earthquakes, epidemics and volcanic eruptions.

Bali's principal export throughout the 17th and 18th centuries was slaves. Warfare and a revision of Bali's Hindu law codes helped provide a steady supply of slaves to meet an ever-increasing overseas demand. War captives, criminals and debtors were sold abroad indiscriminately by Balinese rulers, who maintained a monopoly on the export trade. In north Bali, Europeans were even invited in to oversee the trade, and the Dutch in particular purchased large numbers of Balinese to serve as laborers, artisans and concubines in their extensive network of trading ports - especially their capital at Batavia (now Jakarta), where Balinese slaves made up a sizeable portion of the population. Balinese were even sent to South Africa, where in the early 18th century they constituted up to a quarter of the total number of slaves in that country.

Likewise, Balinese wives and concubines were very much favored by wealthy Chinese traders, for their industriousness and beauty, and the fact that they had no aversion to pork, unlike the Muslim Javanese. An early 19th-century trader noted that Balinese women were among the most expensive slaves, costing "30, 50 and even 70 Spanish dollars, according to her physical qualities." 'Me same observer later comments that the Balinese "regard deportation from their island as the worst possible punishment. This attitude results from their strongly-held conviction that their Gods have no influence outside Bali and that no salvation is to be expected for those who die elsewhere."

The principal kingdoms, which emerged during this period, were Buleleng in the north, Karangasem in the east and Mengwi in the southwest. At various times, these realms expanded to conquer parts of Bali's neighboring islands. Mengwi and Buleleng moved westward into Java, where they became embroiled in conflicts with and between rival Muslim kingdoms. The Dutch came to play an ever larger role in these conflicts, until eventually the Javanese rulers discovered that they had mortgaged their empires to the gin-drinking Europeans. The Balinese were finally pushed out of eastern Java by combined Dutch and Javanese forces.

In the east, Karangasem conquered the neighboring island of Lombok, and at one point even moved into the western part of the next island, Sumbawa. It also annexed Buleleng, and knocked at the gates of Bali's august, but largely impotent central kingdom, Mungkung.

By the beginning of the 19th century, the island's changeable political landscape had stabilized to an extent, as nine separate kingdoms consolidated their positions. A massive eruption of Mt. Tambora on Sumbawa in 1815 - the largest eruption ever recorded proved to be a catalyst. A tide of famine and disease swept Bali in the wake of the eruption, shredding the traditional fabric of Balinese society, and with it many of the fragile political structures of the two previous centuries.

Paradoxically, Tambora's devastating eruption brought in its aftermath a period of unprecedented renewal and prosperity. Deep layers of nutrient-rich ash from the volcano made Bali's soils fertile beyond the wildest imaginings of earlier Balinese rulers. Rice and other agricultural products began to be exported in large quantities, at a time when vociferous anti-slavery campaigns throughout Europe were bringing an end to Bali's lucrative slave trade.

Two other factors served to transform the island's political and economic landscape. The first was a dramatic decrease in warfare, as ruling families focused more and more on internecine struggles and competing claims for dynastic control, and the monopolies on duties, tolls and corves labor that came with it. The second was the changing nature of foreign trade, particularly with the founding of Singapore as a British free trade port in 1819. To Singapore went Bali's pigs, vegetable oils and rice. Back came opium, Indian textiles and guns. Bali was now integrated with world markets to a degree unknown in the past, a fact that did not escape the ever-watchful eyes of colonial Dutch administrators in Batavia.

COLONIAL ERA

Conquests and Dutch Colonial Rule

In the 19th century, Europe took up the fashion of empire building with a vengeance. Tiny Holland, once Europe's most prosperous trading nation, was not to be left behind, and spent much of the century subduing native rulers throughout the archipelago - a vast region that was to become the Netherlands East Indies, later Indonesia.

A steady stream of European traders, scholars and mercenaries visited Bali in this period. The most successful of the traders was a Dane by the name of Mads Lange, one of the last of the great "country traders" whose local knowledge and contacts permitted them to operate on the interstices of the European colonial powers and the traditional kingdoms of the region.

A literary character

Lange was perhaps the prototype for Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim - a man who failed to pick the winning side in an internecine dynastic struggle which wracked Lombok in the first half of the 19th century, but who then settled in southern Bali and found a powerful patron in Kesiman, one of the lords of the expanding kingdom of Badung. He soon combined this patronage with a knowledge of overseas markets and familiarity with the largely female-run internal trading networks of Bali, to become extremely rich for a brief period in the 1840s.

The Dutch, determined to establish economic and political control over Bali, became embroiled during this period in a series of wars in the north of the island. They came, as they saw it, to "teach the Balinese a lesson," whereas the words of the chief minister of Buleleng best expressed the prevailing Balinese view: "Let the keris decide." The first two Dutch attacks, in 1846 and 1848, were repulsed by north Balinese forces aided by allies from Karangasem and Klungkung, as well as by rampant dysentery among the invading forces. A third Dutch attempt in 1849 succeeded mainly because the Balinese rulers of Lombok, cousins of the Karangasem rulers, used this as an opportunity to take over east Bali.

Not wishing to push their luck, the Dutch contented themselves with control of Bali's northern coast for the next 40 years. As this was the island's main export region, they did succeed in isolating the powerful southern kingdoms and in controlling much of the export trade. Lange's fortunes soon declined as a result, and he died several years later, probably poisoned out of economic jealousy.

The end of traditional rule

Not long after the cataclysmic eruption of Krakatau in 1883, on the other side of Java, a series of momentous struggles began amongst the kingdoms of south Bali - struggles that were to result in a loss of independence for all of them over the next 25 years.

These conflicts began with the collapse of Gianyar following a rebellion by a vassal lord in Negara. The rebellion ultimately failed, as Gianyar was revived by a hitherto obscure but upwardly mobile prince in Ubud, but it in turn touched off a series of conflicts that produced a domino effect across the island.

The first kingdom to go was once mighty Mengwi, former ruler of east Java, which was destroyed by its neighbors in 1891. The Sasak or Islamic inhabitants of Lombok then rebelled against their Balinese overlords, which gave the Dutch an excuse to intervene and conquer Lombok in 1894.

Greatly weakened by these events, Karangasem and Gianyar both ceded some of their rights to the Dutch, leaving only the independent kingdoms of Badung, Tabanan, and prestigious Klungkung by the turn of this century.

Shipwrecks, opium and death

The Dutch found excuses to take on these kingdoms in a series of diplomatic incidents involving shipwrecks and the opium trade. These culminated in the infamous puputans or massacres of 1906 and 1908 that resulted in not only many deaths, but complete Dutch mastery over the island.

In the 1906 puputan, the Dutch landed at Sanur and marched on Denpasar, where they were greeted by over a thousand members of the royal family and their followers, dressed in white and carrying the state regalia in a march to certain death before the superior Dutch weaponry. As later expressed by the neighboring king of Tabanan, the attitude of

the unrelenting Balinese ruler of Badung, when asked to sign a treaty with the Dutch, was that "it is better that we die with the earth as our pillow than to live like a corpse in shame and disgrace."

A macabre massacre

In 1908 the bloody puputan (meaning "ending" in Balinese) was repeated on a smaller scale in Klungkung. The ghastly scene was one in which, according to one Dutch observer, the corpse of the king, his head smashed open and brains oozing out, was surrounded by those of his wives and family in a bloody tangle of half-severed limbs, corpses of mothers with babies still at their breasts, and wounded children given merciful release by the daggers of their own compatriots.

Ostensibly because they felt guilty about the bloody nature of their conquest, which was widely reported and condemned in Europe, the Dutch authorities quickly established a policy designed to uphold "traditional" Bali. In fact this policy supported only what was was seen to be traditional in their eyes, and only if those bits of tradition did not contradict the central aim of running a quiet and lucrative colony.

Marketing ploys

Preserving Bali largely meant three things to the Dutch: creating a colonial society which included a select group of the aristocracy, labeling and categorizing every aspect of Balinese culture with a view to keeping it pure, and idealizing this culture so as to market it for the purposes of tourism. Although these may sound contradictory, they meshed well together. There were slight hiccups Balinese who refused to cooperate and did their best to avoid the demands of the Dutch run state. Some were killed, others were forced to work on road construction projects or to pay harsh new taxes on everything from pigs to the rice harvest.

Indirect rule through royalty

Another aspect of "preserving" Bali was that the traditional rulers were maintained. As on Java, the Dutch adopted a policy of ruling the villages indirectly through them, while running their own parallel civil service to administer the towns. At least this was the general idea, although here too there were some hitches. It took decades before a cooperative branch of the old Buleleng royal family was in place, and many members of the other royal families had to be exiled. In the case of the Klungkung royalty, the exile lasted for some 19 years after the puputan.

The royal families of Gianyar and Karangasem adapted best to the new conditions. Gusti Bagus Jelantik, the ruler of Karangasem, embarked on an active campaign to strengthen and redefine traditional Balinese religion. In large part, he did this to head off the sort of split that had earlier occurred in the north, between modernist commoners or sudras who argued for a social status based on achievement, and members of the three higher castes or triwangsa who were given hereditary privileges. Ironically this split came about because of a new emphasis on rigidly-defined caste groups under Dutch rule.

The Dutch had to intervene and exile some sudra leaders, but modernizing moderates such as the Karangasem ruler realized the need to shape and control the changes taking place in Balinese religion and society. In this, they found ready allies among intellectuals in the Dutch civil service with a passion for Balinese culture, and an international influx of artists, travelers and dilettantes who poured into Bali during the 1920s and 1930s.

Hints of sex and magic

Some, like Barbara Hutton and Charlie Chaplin, were rich and famous and stayed only for a short time. Others, like painter Walter Spies, cartoonist Miguel Covarrubias and composer Colin McPhee, are now famous principally because of their long association with Bali.

The attraction for these well-heeled, well connected or simply talented Westerners was the developing image of Bali as a tropical paradise, where art exists in overabundance and people live in perfect harmony with nature

an image tinged with hints of sex and magic that was officially sponsored by Dutch tourism officials. And it was certainly promoted by genuinely enthusiastic reports from those who visited and witnessed the island's intricate life, art and rituals.

The positive contributions of these foreign scholars and artists, working in conjunction with enlightened Balinese and Dutch civil servants, included such institutions as the Bali Museum and the Kirtya Liefrinckvan der Tuuk (now continuing as the Bali Documentation Center).

But there was a negative side as well. Although the Bali lovers claimed to be the complete opposite of colonial authorities, they in fact represented the other side of the coin of Western rule. With the fan dance performances for tourists came forced labor, and in their writings Bali-struck foreigners always conveniently ignored the poverty, disease and injustice that made the colonial era a time of continuous hardship and fear for many Balinese.

POST INDEPENDENCE

From Chaos to Tourism Development

The Dutch, complacent in their cocoon of colonial supremacy, were shocked when the Japanese invaded the Indies in 1942, so shocked that they gave up with hardly a fight. More shocking still to the colonialists was the fact that after the war the majority of Indonesians failed to welcome their former rulers back with open arms. Revolution! and Freedom! had instead become rallying cries around the archipelago, and these were taken up with fierce determination by the Balinese.

Those who had come to believe in colonial "peace and order" and in "Bali The Paradise" were appalled by the intensity of violence and social divisions which wracked Bali in subsequent decades, from the beginning of VAVII until the middle of the 1960s. In many ways the violence was worse here than in any other part of Indonesia, a situation which had its roots in the way that the Dutch had ruled Bali, and the fierce pride and independence of the Balinese people themselves.

Japanese rule, brief as it was, was a period of increasing hardship punctuated by torture and killings. Although the Japanese had initially been welcomed as liberators, members of the Balinese upper class soon found themselves bearing the brunt of a campaign of terror designed to beat them into submission. Military requirements for rice and other products also dictated that the niceties of wooing the Balinese masses into devotion to the Japanese cause eventually gave way to harsher measures.

As the war dragged on and Japan's position became precarious, most Balinese suffered from serious shortages of all basic necessities. At the same time, Balinese youths were radicalized by being made to join paramilitary organizations with strong nationalistic overtones. When the Japanese surrendered, a few Balinese did welcome the Dutch back, but many others acted swiftly to seize the Japanese weapons and take up the struggle for independence. As the Dutch prepared to return with the triumphant Allied forces, preparations were made on Bali for a violent "welcome for the uninvited guests."

Bali's foremost revolutionary was Gusti Ngurah Rai, who led a brave but badly outnumbered and outgunned guerilla group. Some 1400 Balinese fighters died in the struggle, but with few resources Ngurah Rai was defeated and killed. Bali then became the headquarters of the new State of Eastern Indonesia, which the Dutch hoped to later merge into a pro-Dutch federation. Even this state, under the leadership of the Gianyar ruler, Anak Agung Gede Agung (later Foreign Minister of the Republic), turned against the Dutch when they broke their treaty with the fledgling Republic, and so contributed to the achievement of full independence in 1949.

Mayhem and mass murder

Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, social divisions which had crystallized during the Revolution continued to widen. Political conflicts and assassinations were rife - the key split being between those who favored the old caste system and traditional values, and those who rejected the caste system as a form of aristocratic "feudalism" designed to oppress the majority. By the mid-1960s the conflict had taken political form as a contest between the Indonesian Nationalist Party (PMI) and the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). Attempts by the latter to organize a program of land reform exacerbated the already high level of rhetoric and bad feelings, and both sides organized rallies and pressed Balinese to chose one side or the other.

On September 30th, 1965, an unsuccessful coup in Jakarta resulted in a takeover of the government by pro-Western military leaders under General Suharto. In the wake of the coup, a tidal wave of killings swept Java and Bali, as the military sought first to dismantle the extensive structure of the PKI, and rightist supporters then turned this campaign into one of wholesale slaughter. As many as 500,000 Indonesians died, and up to a fifth of them - 5 per cent of the island's population at the time - may have been Balinese.

Bitter memories

Most Balinese have family or friends who were involved in the conflict in one way or another, but few will talk about it today, so extensive and brutal were the killings. One journalist wrote, "For the next three months [November 1965 to January 1966] Bali became a nightmare... There is no one living in Bali now who does not have a neighbor who was killed and left unburied by the black devils with red berets [followers of the PNI] who roamed about at the time."

A quiet military leader, Suharto emerged as President of Indonesia. His "New Order" government has provided a long period of stability and development, in sharp contrast to the chaotic Sukarno years that preceded it, providing basic health care, food, housing and education to a rapidly growing population of over 190 million people.

Bali has played a key role in Indonesia's recent development. The tourist "paradise" begun by the Dutch has been revised and given modern form, providing a lucrative income for many thousands of Balinese and significant amounts of foreign exchange for the nation.

Under the leadership of Ida Bagus Mantra, a Brahman religious scholar and educationalist who became Bali's governor in 1978, the island's tourist development was relatively steady and controlled throughout the 1980s.

The end of the 20th century brought great changes to Indonesia, with the downfall of the Suharto regime and the arrival of democratic elections. Bali's challenge, in this era of newfound political and economic freedom, is to control the island's cultural changes in the face of expanding mass tourism.