Bali is a province of
Indonesia which is located between the islands of Java and Lombok island, Bali
is also commonly referred to as The Island Of Thousands Temples, The Island of
Gods, Bali Dwipa, Bali also has several small islands are also included in the
province of Bali, including the island of Nusa Penida, nusa Lembongan Island,
Ceningan island, Serangan Island and Menjangan Island.
The capital of Bali is
Denpasar, located in the south of the island, the island of Bali is renowned as
a world tourism destination with unique art and culture. Bali island is a best
place for holiday with the world class accommodations
Bali was inhabited by around 2000 BC by
Austronesian peoples who migrated originally from Taiwan through Maritime
Southeast Asia. Culturally and linguistically, the Balinese are thus closely
related to the peoples of the Indonesian archipelago, Malaysia, the
Philippines, and Oceania. Stone tools dating from this time have been found
near the village of Cekik in the island's west. In ancient Bali, nine Hindu
sects existed, namely Pasupata, Bhairawa, Siwa Shidanta, Waisnawa, Bodha,
Brahma, Resi, Sora and Ganapatya. Each sect revered a specific deity as its
personal Godhead. Balinese culture was strongly influenced by Indian, Chinese,
and particularly Hindu culture, beginning around the 1st century AD. The name
Bali dwipa ("Bali island") has been discovered from various
inscriptions, including the Blanjong pillar inscription written by Sri Kesari
Warmadewa in 914 AD and mentioning "Walidwipa". It was during this
time that the complex irrigation system subak was developed to grow rice. Some
religious and cultural traditions still in existence today can be traced back
to this period. The Hindu Majapahit Empire (1293–1520 AD) on eastern Java
founded a Balinese colony in 1343. When the empire declined, there was an
exodus of intellectuals, artists, priests, and musicians from Java to Bali in
the 15th century.
The first
European contact with Bali is thought to have been made in 1585 when a
Portuguese ship foundered off the Bukit Peninsula and left a few Portuguese in
the service of Dewa Agung. In 1597 the Dutch explorer Cornelis de Houtman
arrived at Bali and, with the establishment of the Dutch East India Company in
1602, the stage was set for colonial control two and a half centuries later
when Dutch control expanded across the Indonesian archipelago throughout the
second half of the nineteenth century (see Dutch East Indies). Dutch political
and economic control over Bali began in the 1840s on the island's north coast,
when the Dutch pitted various distrustful Balinese realms against each other.
In the late 1890s, struggles between Balinese kingdoms in the island's south
were exploited by the Dutch to increase theircontrol.
The Dutch mounted large naval and ground assaults at the Sanur region in 1906 and were met by the thousands of members of the royal family and their followers who fought against the superior Dutch force in a suicidal puputan defensive assault rather than face the humiliation of surrender. Despite Dutch demands for surrender, an estimated 1,000 Balinese marched to their death against the invaders. In the Dutch intervention in Bali (1908), a similar massacre occurred in the face of a Dutch assault in Klungkung. Afterwards the Dutch governors were able to exercise administrative control over the island, but local control over religion and culture generally remained intact. Dutch rule over Bali came later and was never as well established as in other parts of Indonesia such as Java and Maluku.
In the 1930s, anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, and artists Miguel Covarrubias and Walter Spies, and musicologist Colin McPhee created a western image of Bali as "an enchanted land of aesthetes at peace with themselves and nature", and western tourism first developed on the island.
The Dutch mounted large naval and ground assaults at the Sanur region in 1906 and were met by the thousands of members of the royal family and their followers who fought against the superior Dutch force in a suicidal puputan defensive assault rather than face the humiliation of surrender. Despite Dutch demands for surrender, an estimated 1,000 Balinese marched to their death against the invaders. In the Dutch intervention in Bali (1908), a similar massacre occurred in the face of a Dutch assault in Klungkung. Afterwards the Dutch governors were able to exercise administrative control over the island, but local control over religion and culture generally remained intact. Dutch rule over Bali came later and was never as well established as in other parts of Indonesia such as Java and Maluku.
In the 1930s, anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, and artists Miguel Covarrubias and Walter Spies, and musicologist Colin McPhee created a western image of Bali as "an enchanted land of aesthetes at peace with themselves and nature", and western tourism first developed on the island.
Imperial
Japan occupied Bali during World War II. Bali Island was not originally a
target in their Netherlands East Indies Campaign, but as the airfields on
Borneo were inoperative due to heavy rains the Imperial Japanese Army decided
to occupy Bali, which did not suffer from comparable weather. The island had no
regular Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) troops. There was only a
Native Auxiliary Corps Prajoda (Korps Prajoda) consisting of about 600 native
soldiers and several Dutch KNIL officers under command of KNIL Lieutenant
Colonel W.P. Roodenburg. On 19 February 1942 the Japanese forces landed near
the town of Senoer. The island was quickly captured. During the Japanese
occupation a Balinese military officer, Gusti Ngurah Rai, formed a Balinese
'freedom army'. The lack of institutional changes from the time of Dutch rule
however, and the harshness of war requisitions made Japanese rule little better
than the Dutch one. Following Japan's Pacific surrender in August 1945, the
Dutch promptly returned to Indonesia, including Bali, immediately to reinstate
their pre-war colonial administration. This was resisted by the Balinese rebels
now using Japanese weapons. On 20 November 1946, the Battle of Marga was fought
in Tabanan in central Bali. Colonel I Gusti Ngurah Rai, by then 29 years old,
finally rallied his forces in east Bali at Marga Rana, where they made a
suicide attack on the heavily armed Dutch. The Balinese battalion was entirely
wiped out, breaking the last thread of Balinese military resistance. In 1946
the Dutch constituted Bali as one of the 13 administrative districts of the
newly proclaimed State of East Indonesia, a rival state to the Republic of
Indonesia which was proclaimed and headed by Sukarno and Hatta. Bali was
included in the "Republic of the United States of Indonesia" when the
Netherlands recognised Indonesian independence on 29 December 1949.
source :http://www.baliglory.com/
