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An Island
that Inspires
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An Island that Inspires
Bali lies at the geographical heart of the Indonesian archipelago. It is a middle-sized
Javanese influence on Bali, always pervasive, culminated in a full-scale invasion
island (5,632 square kilometers) with a population of three and a half million people,
by Majapahit troops in 1343. Not all the Balinese accepted the fact of invasion though.
most of whom are Hindu-Balinese. They boast a culture that not only is unique, but
Based first in Samprangan, then in Gelgel, the Majapahit warriors could not control
remains alive and well in the face of the onslaught of modernity. Until today, Bali offers
the whole island. Resistance crystallized in Bali Aga villages in the most remote and
its visitors a unique blend of natural and cultural beauty. Bali truly inspires.
mountainous parts. Led by rough peasants at the head of self-ruled communities, the
Bali’s culture has long fascinated visitors. The Dutch saw it as the repository of
Bali Aga Balinese managed to maintain a degree of political as well as cultural autonomy.
Indonesia’s past and as such emphasized its uniqueness in the Indonesian archipelago.
Not only did they retain their own rites and refuse the caste system, but they kept alive
Visitors from the first part of the 20 century—often fleeing from a Europe in deep
their own pre-Javanese artistic tradition.
th
crisis—saw it as an idyllic isle somehow kept miraculously intact from the vagaries of
Thus, by the 16th century, during the reign of Batu Renggong, when the island had
history. Modern Indonesians, when not seeing it, like the Dutch, as a preserved museum
not only regained its independence, but was experiencing a period of unequal power and
of their past, constructed it as the living symbol of their country’s multicultural soul.
prosperity, two sub-cultures coexisted in Bali: a heavily Javanized and sophisticated court
Thus, Bali inspires: it inspires Balinese as the creators of harmony between the land,
culture, rich in palace painters and sculptors; and a peasant culture, surviving in the social
humans, and the divine. It inspires fellow Indonesians to redefine their identity in a more
space unoccupied by the court system, characterized by much more spontaneous modes
open and pluralistic way. Finally it inspires its admiring visitors, through the uniqueness
of expression, and relatively impervious to the coded aesthetic language of the latter.
of its culture and social life, to question the absolutism of their own values.
An important contribution to the Javanization of Bali was the blending of Buddhism and
Shivaism into a syncretic tradition, according to which Buddhist and Shivaite priests may
THE LONG BREATH OF HISTORY
perform ceremonies next to one another, each using their respective mantras. Another
important feature was that Bali remained a center of production of Old-Javanese kakawin
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I Nyoman Ridi
Penestanan, Ubud (1937)
Kecak Dance (1994)
Ink, Acrylic on Canvas
116 x 135 cm
Like all Western Indonesians, the Balinese originate from Austronesian migrations
poetry and other classical texts long after this literature had disappeared from Java. Also
that, starting from Southern China, spread over the Indonesian archipelago and the
worth mentioning at the level of the iconography was the introduction into Bali of flat
Pacific between the third and second millennia B.C. Rice cultivation and bronze
temple reliefs derived from the Wayang (shadow puppet theater) style of Majapahit.
technology arrived from the same area in the middle of the first millennium B.C. Traces
By a whim of fate, the Javanization of Bali took place at the same time as Java was
of contacts with India date back to the first century A.D., but advanced, an Indianized
gradually transformed, first by Islam, then by European colonization. For even as the
kingdom did not appear before the ninth century, that is, five centuries later than on the
power of the Majapahit grew, its sailors were more and more often Muslim. And it was
island of Java, to its immediate west, which was the main vector of Indianization.
Muslim traders who controlled most of the sea trade between the Arabic Peninsula and
Java was also the main vector of the spice trade, which increasingly brought foreign
Canton in Southern China. As they settled on the north coast of Java, they took first
trade ships to her shores. This led to the emergence, at the end of the 13 century, of an
economic and then, with the rise of the Sultanate of Demak, politicall power. In the 16th
East Java-based maritime empire, the Majapahit, which was to hold sway for the next
century, Majapahit’s last priests went to Bali, and the Islamization of Java was complete.
two centuries, mainly through tributes and recognition of formal suzerainty over most of
Yet bearers of a different faith were by then arriving in their high canon-armed
th
the coastal areas and states of the archipelago.
galleons—the Portuguese, who took Malacca in 1511 and quickly cornered the spice
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center of power, into a village culture of smaller principalities in which ‘everyone’,
right
Anonymous
Sita Melabuh Gni/Sita’s Test of Fire
(ca. 1880)
Natural Colors on Cloth
137 x 169 cm
including peasants, could play music, dance, carve, and paint.
This culture lasted until the early 20th century, when the magical kris (daggers with
wavy, double-edged blades) of the Southern Balinese nobility revealed themselves
unable to face the very un-magical modern weaponry of the Dutch. Thousands of
This scene represents an offshoot
of the Ramayana poem in which
Princess Sita, suspected of being
impure by her husband Rama,
subjects herself to the test of fire.
The picture shows the ramp from
which Sita throws herself into the
fire, and the same Sita emerging
unscathed because she is protected
by the fire-god Agni. Rama and
Laksmana are witnessing the event
from the left, and the monkeys from
the right. See The Ramayana Story.
Balinese warriors and noblemen of the kingdoms of Badung and Klungkung—and
women and children—lost their lives in the ultimate puputan, or ‘fights to the end’ against
the Dutch between 1906 and 1908.
INDIAN PHILOSOPHIES AND CHINESE TECHNIQUES
Balinese culture did not grow in a cultural void. The indigenous Austronesian
substratum was reshaped and transformed by long contacts with India and, to a lesser
extent, China. Bali is indeed an Indianized society set on the fringe of the Pacific. Recent
discoveries indicate that initial contacts with India may well date back to the first century
A.D. and perhaps even earlier. DNA studies also point to the presence of a minor Indian
strain in the genetic composition of today’s Balinese population.
Yet it was not until the middle of the millennium that Indian influence was felt in
the mainstream culture of the island through the intermediary of Bali’s sister island of
Java. Buddhism, the religious face of the trade networks that were then developing
trade to Europe while spreading Christianity to the eastern islands. Then, in the early
in the archipelago and Asia as a whole, was the outward manifestation of this early
17th century, the Dutch, now Protestant and free of Spain, arrived in turn to impose a
Indianization. Its role is well known in the emergence of the contemporary culture of
trade monopoly on spices. By the middle of the 18 century, they not only controlled
Central Java, epitomized in the world-famous Prambanan and Borobudur temples (eighth
trade through island ‘factories’, but also the archipelago’s politics. Java was theirs.
to ninth century A.D.). However, artworks from this early Buddhist presence in Bali are
th
Meanwhile, the Javanized culture of Bali remained extremely resilient. It was
scarce and often damaged. They consist mainly of earthen stupas and statues.
paradoxically reinforced in the 16th century when the fall of the last Hindu-Javanese
By the end of the millennium, Buddhism was superseded by Shivaism and other
kingdom of Daha brought to Bali a sprinkling of high-caste Brahman refugees whose
Hindu sects, introduced not directly from India, but through Eastern Java. The same
influence led to a revival-cum-reformation of local Hinduism. Whatever the later vagaries
period also saw the onset of a local written tradition: the languages of those days, Old-
of local politics or the intrusions of Balinese rulers in Eastern Java, Majapahit has
Balinese and Old-Javanese, derived much of their vocabulary from Sanskrit. It is indeed
remained, to this day, the ultimate cultural reference to the Balinese. The Balinization
in literature that the Indian heritage is most noticeable. Indian myths constitute to this
of these cultural references was a long, protracted process that accompanied the
day the core of the local Balinese literature, and the myths carried by this literature are
transformation of the palace culture of Gelgel and then, near-by Klungkung, the original
the foundation on which the Balinese built much of their symbolic world.
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local shamans and Sanskrit-trained priests, than from any direct contact with India.
Such contacts were rare during the whole period for which we have written records,
considering that Islam dominated the Indian Ocean after the weakening and ultimate fall
of the maritime Vijayanegara empire in the 15th and16th centuries.
Even though little is known of the early history of Chinese influence in Bali, there
is little doubt about its importance. Chinese chronicles make mention of the island of
Poli in the archipelago, and a Chinese Mongol fleet is known to have raided Eastern
Java just before the rise of Majapahit in the 13th century. Much of the rest is learned
guesswork: Chinese inputs are numerous, but no written sources exist to date them or
confirm their origin as Chinese.
This silence may be attributed to the type of influence that China exercised: the Chinese
did not bestow a script and stories, as the Indians did, but objects and techniques that
silently infiltrated the archipelago through the trade networks of the South China Sea.
Chinese migrants were part of this movement of exchange. Balinese stories abound
with references to Chinese ancestors and a Putri Cina (Chinese Woman) who became
the consort of a Balinese king.
What is beyond doubt is that Chinese influence was paramount in the all–pervading
field of technology. This began with bronze-making in the Dong Son period (seventh to
fifth centuries B.C.). Later on, techniques other than metallurgy were introduced in the
archipelago.
The most outstanding pertained to construction. Typical Indonesian architecture is
based on wood. Houses rest on wooden stilts. From China came the use of tiles, bricks
opposite
Anonymous
Palelintangan/Balinese Calendar
(ca. 1880)
Natural Colors on Cloth
138 x 169 cm
This painting represents the 35 days
corresponding to the crossing of
the two main types of weeks in the
Pawukon calendar cycle, the sevenday week and the five-day week.
On the upper layer are the gods
who hold sway over the days of the
seven-day week.
Yet, it is in the interpretation of this Indian heritage that the local genius of the
and stone foundations for houses. More important still, most of the techniques related to
Balinese—and their occasional Javanese invaders—manifested itself. The local islanders
the sophisticated working of wood are also of Chinese origin: joinery, of course, but also
may indeed have adopted myths and philosophy from India, but they revamped and
wood painting, such as found in statues and masks.
transformed them into unique local forms. Not only did Balinese dance and theater bear
Among other inputs are the techniques of mixing and gluing color pigments
little resemblance, if any, to anything Indian, but the system of form through which the
used in the making of Wayang paintings. Last but not least, numerous elements of
Balinese express themselves owes next to nothing to India: gods may be attributed the
Balinese iconography were borrowed from the Chinese. Masks, winged lions, puppets
same symbolic weapons as their Indian equivalents, but the sculpting of their faces or
and numerous decorative motifs commonly considered Balinese are objects whose
the way they are represented, say, dancing, is totally different.
techniques, and often, style, owe much to the genius of the Chinese.
Balinese Indianized theater and iconography emerged more from the encounter
Even today, Balinese palaces and temples have buildings that consist of stone
between local and Indian stories and techniques, mountain gods and Hindu deities,
flooring—a Chinese input—which supports a highly decorated wooden and thatched
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Anonymous
Episodes from the Ramayana
(ca. 1880)
Natural Colors on Cloth
95 x 185 cm
This works is a good illustration of
the simultaneous representation
of diachronically different episodes
from the Ramayana.The lower left
window represents Prince Rama,
his brother Laksmana and Princess
Sita as exiles, accompanied by
their servants. The central window
has Rama shooting the arrow that
kills the golden deer. Meanwhile,
in the lower center window, Sita
is tricked into leaving the magical
circle that was protecting her. To
the extreme right, Rawana is shown
taking Sita away. Just above the
deer, Rama and Laksmana wonder
what to do. Meanwhile Jatayu, to the
upper left, challenges Rawana, but
on the middle right, he is mortally
wounded. Rama and Laksmana
discover the dying bird, who will
advise them to ask help from the king
of the monkeys, Sugriwa. See The
Ramayana Story.
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