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In 1913 the netherlands controlled whole bali, but the incidents of 1906 and 1908 did harm the dutch image in the world. Even Amsterdam was demanding the protection of the balinese culture.
The dutch tried to transform the image of bali in the world, which was always presented as a wild country so far.
Now, they presented Bali as a peaceful paradise and already in 1914 the colonial administration tried to support tourism, perhaps also to cover their own bloody history.
The dutch steamship line, which was just transporting goods till 1914, now also put an eye on tourism. The advertising brochure told of "an enchanted island", on which a "simple indigenous habitants" can be found.
Also it told of from the artistic skills of the balinese people and their "fidelity in the exertion of their religion". Also erotic was part of first advertises.
A little bit later a stream of pictures and advertises with bear breasted balinese women could be found in europe and the USA.
The pictures and advertises praised bali as a country of sexual freedom, compared to the concept of sexual morality in europe.
Of course the first tourists needed a lot of time and money in this time. Just a few could afford the voyage which took more than 3 weeks.
Beside supporting tourism, the dutch tried to rebuilt the balinese society (to their own good). Many dutch officials believed, that the reign of the rajas was a violate time of ruthless aristocrats.
They believed in a bali of "village-republics", which was in their view "the real bali".
They didn´t just change bali in a big scale they also massively transformed the local level, which they pretended to protect.
The regency administration was retained or newly staffed and the number of irrigation communities were reduced.
The result was, that farmers were allocated to foreign villages, to which they had no social relationship before.
They didn´t do compulsory labor for a royal house anymore, which served a spiritual role in balinese believe, they now did "useful" work for the dutch.
Painters and musicians of Rajas were deployed in road construction and they were told by the dutch, that this would be just the continuation of their traditional responsibilities.
For the dutch the changes meant law order and peace, for the balinese it resulted in chaos and depletion.
Former lower aristocrats, which worked now for the dutch administration ruled with terror and violence about their regencies. Spying, corruption and sexual assault were daily life. A big part of the society felt deracinated.
Some of the old aristocrats tried to reestablish old traditions. Gusti Bagus Jlantik (1887-1968), the Raja von Karangasem, was one of these aristocrats.
He was following his father on the throne in 1908 with just 21 years . His father had to surrender to the dutch, shortly before he died.
When the ritual cremation was held and many followers and relatives attended this occasion, the dutch used this circumstance to demand the extradition of persons, who still didn´t accept the colonial rulers.
Because, they threatened to attack the city with artillery, the young prince had no choice, but to hand over this people, including friends and close relatives.
They were all exiled to Lombok and Gusti Baugs Jlantik kept in mind, that every action against the dutch would be followed by drastic sanctions.
In 1917, the eruption of the vulcano Gunung Batur killed more than 1.000 people and nearly destroyed the village batur.
Just the Temple Pura Ulan Danu Batur survived the eruption with little damage. Gusti Bagus Jlantik used this incident to reanimate the religious traditions on bali.
He and also the rajas of Bangli and Gianyar pointed out, that the chaos in society and nature was caused by the disregarding of religious responsibilities.
They tried to reestablish the old caste system and also wanted to support the celebration of rituals under their leadership.
The last goal was also supported by the dutch, because it helped them in their ambition to transform the image of bali. In 1918 the colonial administration decided to protect bali from foreign influences.
in 1926 another big eruption of Mount Gunung Batur happened. The complete village of batur was destroyed, all inhabitans were killed and also the temple Pura Ulun Danu Batur was destroyed.
Just the temple shrine survived. Later the temple was rebuilt near to the crater lake Batur.
In 1928 the museum Gedong Kirthya was founded in Singaraja. It contained lontar-inscriptions on palm leaves. The lontar-inscriptions contained historical records, literature and religious teachings.
In 1929 the dutch conceded a limited autonomy to some balinese princedoms. A council of kings was founded, which had administrative power on bali, but the dutch still controlled all decisions.
In 1937 Gusti Bagus Jlantik celebrated one of the greatest rituals ever. He integrated sanctify ritual in it, which granted him the heritable title "Anak Agung Ktut Karangasem".
In 1938 the dutch celebrated similar rituals with loyal princedoms. The intention was to support their power and to give their titles a formal coat.
In 1942 the japanese occupied bali and the dutch had to retreat. In the strait of Badung a important naval battle happened, which was won by the japanese.
Bali was used as a base of operations for their bombers and their isolation of Java.
At the beginning japan could invade Bali without much resistance, because the japanese war propaganda publicised “a great asiatic area of wellfare” and the support of an asian identity.
Because of this many indonesian nationalist hoped, that the independence movement would be supported by the japanese.
The outcome should show, that just this nationalist were the ones, who suffered most during the japanese occupation.
A spiritual leader, who turned against the japanese was tortured several days, before he was hanged upside down on his feet. Also other examples of cruelty wer reported on whole bali.
However, the japanese didn´t stamped on balis elite, as they did in other parts of indonesia, where they normally just executed the establishment.
The reason was, that the japanese knew, that they would need balis aristocrats to keep up the control over bali. The son of Anak Agung Gede Agung was even promoted to an officer of the japanese army.
The nationalist could just keep silent and observe how bali became the operation base for japanese bomber-attacks against australia.
But when Japan got more and more under pressure from the allies, they tried to keep up their occupation by dangling the independence to the indonesian nationalists.
Even Sukarno, a spearhead of the indonesian inpedence-movement negotiated with the japanese occupants in this time (which was criticised later).
At the time of the atomic attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Sukarno and the national leaders hoped, that the retreating japanese would hand over their weapons to them.
But the allies demanded of the japanese to hand over all weapons to them to secure the safe return of the dutch.
Mostly the japanese troops sticked to this agreement, but some commanders did defend their arsenals just symbolically.
So, the nationalist movement in indonesia possessed modern weapons for their fight for independence. For a transition period bali hadn´t a real center of administrative power. In this time Sukarno proclaimed the independence and the republic in Jakarta.
Rajas argued with each other, if they should stick to the dutch or if they should support the Sukarnos proclamation of the republic.
Conflicts started even within families. Cokorda Anom Putra was a supporter of the republic. His father, the Dewa Agung of Klungkung was one of the most loyal supporters of the dutch.
When the dutch arrived again in 1946, the old aristocrats were the most loyal allies on bali. The majority of the young generation were mostly supporting the republic.
One of the strongest opponents was Ngurah Rai from Mengwi. After a few battles against the dutch they isolated him and his followers on the 20. November 1946 near Marga.
He didn´t agree to surrender and followed the tradition of the puputan, what means, that he and 94 of his followers were killed by the dutch.
The dutch tried to unwind the situation by making a compromise. This compromise included the forming of the NIT (Negera Indonesia Timor), a federation of an east indonesian region under dutch command.
The nationalist called this federation: "Negera Ikut tuan" (=follow the master).
Cokorda Raka Sukawati from Ubud was installed as the ruler of Gyanyar, but assigned this title to his brother, because he tried to become a minister in the newly founded NIT.
Cokorda Raka Sukawati was, beside Anak Agung Gede Agung, one of the most ambitious oppressors of the resistance against the dutch.
Even the brother of Sukawati, Cokorda Agung, was arrested and tortured. Two close friends of Cokorda Agung were executed by dutch soldiers.
One of the most cruel incidents was the attack on the village Batuan. The inhabitants of the village were accused to support the republic. The order from Gyanyar was to humiliate and torture all sympathisers of the republic in front of the inhabitants of Batuan.
One of these sympathisers was Ide Bagus Made Jatasura, one of the most famous and talented painters on bali. He, his friends and his relatives were tortured in public. Later he died in the prison of Gyanyar.
The role of Anak Agung Gede Agung is controversial. As a reason for his collaboration with the dutch he later declared, that he felt estranged from the nationlist movement, because he was kidnapped before by sympathisers of the republic.
On one hand he was responsible for the cruel oppression of the independence-movement, on the other hand he later supported the acknowledgment of the republic in the administration of the NIT.
On the 20th of april 1948 the dutch started an attack against all republican forces in indonesia and bombarded several cities. This so called "police operation" caused severe critic by the USA and Great Britain.
A second "police operation" was launched on the 18th of december. All civil members of the republic administration betake themselves in arrest and hoped for international protest.
They didn´t had to wait for long. The USA stopped reconstruction payments to the netherlands, the UN condemned the actions and asian countries started to boycott the netherlands.
At this time Anak Agung Gede Agung also condemned the dutch actions and supported the republic. Perhaps he just did so, because he wanted so swim with the tide. Despite this fact, he later got the position of the foreign secretary of indonesia.
By the international pressure the dutch had to accept negotiations with the arrested administration. Also many other arrested supporters were set free.
In 1949 the sovereignty was handed over to the republicans. The princedoms on bali lost most of their power through this act.
Sukarno was the first president of the republic of indonesia and founder of the party PNI (Parai Nasionalis Indonesia). He was born as the son of a javanese father and a balinese mother.
Both teached him the importance of the different cultures of indonesia, since he was a young boy.
He tried to find a collective and true indonesian culture to unite his country. For this he combined elements of all regions of indonesia, of the urban cultures and also of chinese elements and tried to reconciled it with the upcoming modernisation. This politic was called: "unity in plurality".
He tried to animate all indonesians to visit bali and supported many balinese artists, especially in Ubud.
Guests of the state were often welcomed by balinese dancers from the region of Ubud or Gyanyar. He welcomed many guests in his palace, which was built on a hill near Tampak Siring.
In 1950 some aristocrats, who before were member of the council of kings (which was founded by the dutch) tried to declare bali to an area, in which the old elite could go one with their rule.
The parliament was mostly held by members of this old elite and traditionalists. During the only election in the Sukarno era, they voted for a candidate, who should support this demand, but Sukarno intervened and vetoed against the decision and installed Anak Bagus Suteja as the governor of bali.
Anak Bagus Seteja was one of the most prominent representative of the independence-movement. He covered the famous "balinese breast", because he tried to act against the sensationalist tourism and it´s image which didn´t fit in the modern indonesia.
In this time a group of neotraditionalists tried to reform the balinese hinduism, also because of pressure from Jakarta.
The balinese hinduism had to prove its status as a world religion between islam and christianity in indonesia. The pancasila, (the basic principles of the indonesian republic: Nationalism, Humanity, Advice, social welfare and the believe in one god) demanded the believe in a single godhood.
Further a religion had to posses a written collection of ethical rules. Literary scholars could prove that the balinese hinduism disposed of literature, ritual and ethical writings.
They tried to prove the believe in one god, by transforming the hinduism into the direction of the indian interpretation.
By this they proved, that the several gods of the hiduist believe could be combined in the great and most important hindusit godhood Sanghyang Widi Wasa.
Many intellectuals from bali studied in india and a whole generation focussed on india.
The most active support of old traditions was the Dewa Agung of Klungkung. He tried to keep up his position as high king and held many religious celebrations.
He also as an informal leader of a council of brahmin-priests and was an accepted authority to survey brahmins and to give advices to them.
In 1963 he tried to sustain and expand his position as a spiritual leader by celebrating the Eka Dasa Rudra Ritual. This ritual is just celebrated every 100 years and serves the purpose to ban the evil powers. The eleven forms of the dreadful god Eka Dasa Rudra should be banned by holding this ritual. It also should balance conflicts in the society.
The measure of this ritual was getting so immense, that the Dewa Agung and his followers needed support of the republic administration, which in the in past vetoed against the election a traditionalist governor.
This time, the administration, including the installed governor Sujeta and critics of the Dewa Agung supported him. The intention was to support the collective balinese culture.
In the midst of the ritual-preparations at the temple Pura Besakih the volcano Gunung Batur erupted. Whole villages were erased from the map, thousands of balinese died and many temples were destroyed.
The Dewa Agung and his priests preserved in the Pura Besakih and tried to perform as many steps of the ritual as possible, but many former supporters of the ritual demanded to stop it, due the security risk.
In the balinese perception the incident could assessed as a failure but also as a positive signal. Powers of destruction or their accelaration could also mean a time of renewal, which may lead the way to a glowing future.
Maybe this thinking also led to the incidents that followed in 1965.
Between the 30th September and the first october 1965 a pogrom on members and sympathisers of the communist party PKI (Partai Komunis Indonesia) happened in whole indonesia.
Preceded was a tapering conflict between the right wing of the PNI and the PKI. After the PSI (Partai Sosialis Indonesia), which wasn´t a real communist movement won the elections in 1956 on bali, President Sukarno vetoed against this election und forbid the party in 1960.
Many former PSI-members joined the PKI after this and radicalised. By this the PKI got a lot of new members and increased its influence.
One central position of the PKI was a land reform, which was promised by many politicians but never realised. They called the farmers to enforce the rights and defend themselves against the great land owners, who still benified from the colonial-era.
Also the growing corruption in Sukarnos administration was one point of citicism by the PKI, which tried to stay free of any corruption.
They also criticised religous rituals, which were also dedicated to support the power of the old elite or traditionalists. They even tried disturb rituals and attracted hate from the traditionalists on themselves by doing this.
Continuously it came to violent hostilities between members of the PKI and the PNI. Everyone was under pressure to decide for one side. Villages, temple communities and even families were polarised.
After a (supposedly) attempted coup on September, the 30th 1965, generals were killed, supposedly by members of the PKI. The right wing of the PNI used this incident to overthrow Sukarno and to crush the PKI and its sympathisers.
Suharto, a general who tried to present himself as the one who foiled the plot. He tried to intensify the situation by propagating, that the 5 generals were barbarously killed and cut in pieces by members of the PKI.
In the believe of the muslim majority, a soul of someone who´s body can´t be buried in one piece would never find peace. By this Suharto provoked step by step a mass murder of PKI members and their sympathisers.
What followed was the mass murder in whole Indonesia. Villages, including its inhabitants were erased from the map, when they seemed to be on the wrong side.
On Bali, the slaughtering was especially brutal. A general, associated to the PNI, named "Saro Edhy" reported:"On Java we had to urge people to kill communists, on Bali we had to stop them".
The military itself often didn´t took an active part in the killings, they utilized villagers to kill their cohabitants, sometimes even their neighbours.
Everyone who didn´t want to take part of the killings, had to fear to get killed himself. Just in a very few cases a whole village community refused obedience.
The result of these killings were terrifying high. 100.000 people were killed on Bali. More then 500.000 were killed in whole Indonesia.
Today we have to assume that the coup, that led to this incident of mass murder was staged or at least exaggerated by Suharto and the right wing ot the PNI.
By crushing the PKI and overthrowing Sukarno the Era of the Suharto-Regime began.
His leadership was centralized on Java and didn´t include all regions of indonesia anymore but he still accepted the special role of bali, perhaps also because of the economical possibilities of the tourism industry.
The first tourists were hippies, who were appealed by the mystical image of bali, with its rituals and also cheap drugs. To get prepared for this kind of tourists many small hotels and lodges were built.
These weren´t the tourists, the tourism industry was waiting for, because they didn´t bring much money with them, but they laid the foundation for the upcoming mass tourism.
In 1979 Cokorda Sukawati of Ubud died. His burial-ceremony was getting international attentions. Also TV-station in the USA and europe were interested.
Also the ritual of Eka Dasa Rudra was reinitiated, after it had to abandoned in 1965, because the eruption of the volcano Gunung Agung.
In the 80´s and 90´s the mass tourism was expanding massively and reached 400.000 visitors per year. Also the corrupt Suharto-Clan profited of this.
The flood of tourist brought on hand more prosperity to bali, but on the other hand the island and its culture became something like a backdrop for the tourism industry.
The Bali Post reported in 1997: "Balis beaches have been changes to a ecological and cultural battlefield."
At some rituals it is difficult to find balinese people in the crowd of tourists. For some tourists bali is mainly an party-island inclusive cheap prostitution. Some websites are even promoting: "Bali Sex Tours".
A drastic slump in the stream of tourists was caused by the suicide attacks on the Sari Club at Kuta in 2002. The suicide bombings were attributed to a group of radical islamists, called Jemmah Islamiyah.
202 people were killed, most of them australian. On october, the 12th 2004 a memorial was adepted with a hinduist ceremonial.
The slump in the tourism industry was relatively short. Already 2004 the number of visitors climbed to 4,4 Million. Also the Sari-Club was reopened and is well visited again.
Sources:
Günther Spitzing, Bali, DuMont Verlag, ISBN 3-7701-1382-9
Adrian Vickers, Reise Know-How - Bali, ein Paradies wird erfunden, Reise Know-How Verlag, ISBN 3-89416-618
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