THE PEOPLE

CONQUEST OF SOUTH BALI

In Bali, things continued in a state of turmoil. The allied states of Badung, Klungkung, and Bangli united to make war on Gianyar. In 1900 the powerful prince of Ubud, Tjokorde Gede, influenced the Dewa Manggis, Radja of,Gianyar, to ask for help from the Dutch Government. An army was sent immediately to protect Gianyar, which was automatically annexed by the Dutch.

In May of 1904 the small Chinese steamer Sri Koemala, coming from Borneo, was wrecked and looted in Sanur, on the south coast of Bali. The owners held the Dutch Government responsible and demanded three thousand silver dollars' damages and
the punishment of those culpable. Official embassies were Sent to obtain the amount from the Radja of Badung, Anak Agung Made, who refused. The dickering went on for two years, but finally the Dutch, angered because the prince could not be made
to pay, ordered the closing of Badung to all exports and imports and asked the co-operation of the bordering states. All of the independent princes refused to close their frontiers. That was the beginning of the struggle for supremacy between the Dutch and
the Balinese Radjas. The people themselves were, for the most part, indifferent. To them the victory of one side or the other meant chiefly a change of masters, somebody else to whom to pay taxes.

In the fall of 1906 the Radja definitely refused to meet the demands and on the 15th of September a large military expedition landed in Sanur, only three miles from Den Pasar, the capital of Badung. Here the people remained indifferent to the presence of the soldiers, because, being under the influence of the peace loving Brahmanas, they were unconcerned with the troubles of the Raja. But at dawn of the following day an army of Balinese with golden spears, coming from Denpasar, made a surprise attack. The fighting went on all day; a few Dutch soldiers were wounded, but hundreds of Balinese were killed in the unequal fight, and by evening the Balinese were forced to retreat. The Dutch remained in Sanur for a few days, occasionally giving concerts for the Balinese, ironically playing the Sourire d'amour. on their brass band. When the advance on Denpasar was started, the army was opposed all the way, but when they came to the palace of Kesiman, just outside the town, they found it deserted. There the acting ruler had been killed by a priest in an argument over whether they should oppose the Dutch. It is curious that inside the palace they found two bronze cannon that had belonged to Napoleon, bearing the date 1813 and the Napoleonic "N," together with a number of muskets from 1620.

Early on the morning of September 20 the navy bombarded Denpasar, shells falling on the palace and the houses of other princes, setting them on fire. This caused the civilian population to flee, leaving the Radja with only about two thousand men. Soon after the bombardment the army was reported near Denpasar; the Radja expected that the attack would be directed against the main entrance of the palace on the south side, as their military law would require, but unexpectedly the army turned and made for the north. Inside, the household bad been worked up to a state of frenzy, almost a trance; everything of value was destroyed and the palace was set on fire. The king, seeing his cause lost, told his followers that to defend the palace was hopeless, but anyone who wished could folldw him into a puputan, a " fight to the end."

The only honorable thing left for him was to die a dignified death, rather than be exiled like the Radja of Lombok, to die away from Bali, and without the proper rituals of cremation. In a moment the Radia, his Pungawas, his generals. and all his relatives, men and women, were ready, dressed in their best and wearing their finest gold krisses. The women were even more enthusiastic than the men; they were dressed in men's clothes, short white loincloths caught between the legs, covered with jewellery, and with their hair loose. They carried krisses and spears broken in half to be used more effectively at close range. At nine in the morning the fantastic procession left the palace, with the Radja at the head, carried on the shoulders of one of his men, protected by his gold umbrellas of state, staring intently at the road in front of him, and clutching in his right hand his kris of gold and diamonds. He was followed by silent men and entranced women, and even boys joined the procession, armed with spears and krisses. They marched on through what is today the main avenue of Den Pasar towards Kesiman, and when they turned the comer, the Dutch regiment was only three hundred yards away.

The commander, astonished at the sight of the strange procession, gave orders to halt; Balinese interpreters from Buleleng spoke to the Radja and his followers, begging them anxiously to stop, but they only walked faster. They came within one hundred feet, then seventy feet, then made a mad rush at the soldiers, waving their krisses and spears. The soldiers fired the first volley and a few fell, the Radja among them. Frenzied men and women continued to attack, and the soldiers, to avoid being killed, were obliged to fire continually. Someone went among the fallen people with a kris killing the wounded. He was shot down, but immediately another man took his place; he was shot, but an old woman took the kriss and continued the bloody task. The wives of the Radja stabbed themselves over his body, which lay buried under the corpses of the princes and princesses who had dragged them selves over to die upon the body of their king. When the horrified soldiers stopped firing, the women threw handfuls of gold coins, yelling that it was payment for killing them; and if the liberating bullet did not come soon enough, the maddened women stabbed themselves. When they had nearly all been killed, a new group approached, led by the Radja's brother, a twelve-year-old boy who could hardly carry his spear. The interpreters again tried to stop them, but were ignored, and they were all shot down.

The way to the burning palace was now free, except for the hundreds of corpses that covered the road. Everywhere lay broken spears and krisses with gold handles studded with enormous diamonds and rubies in pools of blood. On the side of the Dutch there was only one man killed, a, sergeant stabbed by a woman.

In the afternoon of the same day the army attacked the palace of the neighboring Radja of Pemecutan, but the Balinese met them with artillery fire that caused some losses among the Dutch. Near the palace another puputan took place: the insane old Radia, dressed in yellow silks and carried in a gold sedan chair, followed by his wives and Pungawas, went out to meet the army after setting the palace on fire. Soon all were killed. When the palace was taken, the last obstacle to the conquest of Badung, the tired soldiers returned to Denpasar, but their victory tasted of a terrible moral defeat.

The people returned to their houses. All night long, hurried wholesale cremations were held while the Dutch buried their dead. The next morning a young Pungawa came to see the commander. He said he had been away the day before and had missed being killed with the rest, so be asked to be shot by the soldiers. When he was refused, be drew his kris and stabbed himself before he could be prevented. The Balinese then gave up their arms.

A few days later Gusti Ngurah Agung, the Radja of Tabanan, came with his son to speak to the Resident. He had changed his gold umbrella for a green one in sign of submission. He wanted to surrender on condition that he be allowed to retain his title and have the same rights as the Radja of Gianyar and Karangasem; Resident Liefrink replied coldly that he must be deported from Bali until an answer to his request came from the Government He would be held in the palace for the night and on the next day would embark for Lombok. Next morning both the Radja and his son were found dead; the son was poisoned, supposedly, by an overdose of opium, and the old Radja had cut his throat with a blunt sirih knife. Thus the state of Tabanan fell to the, Dutch.

Two years later the Dewa Agung of Klungkung remained the, only independent Radja, but be was " insolent," and the stori of Lombok, Denpasar, and Pemetjutan were repeated; an armed force was sent to punish him and another great puputan t place in the main avenue of Klungkung; the highest Radja Bali was killed, with his whole family.

Two of the women who survived the Denpasar puputan sisters of the Radja, were aunts of Gusti Oka, the young prince in whose house we lived. They are now white-haired old ladies but they remember every detail of the struggle and one s 0 me two bullet wounds in her side. Gusti was only two years at the time and he was rushed to another village with his litle cousin, the present Regent of Badung, but Gusti's father killed and his house destroyed. Another relative of the Raja who survived the massacre told us she fainted when she was cut in the face by the spear of a falling man. All she remembers was " the cool hissing of the bullets " in her ears; she added:" like music. "

The army remained in Bali until 1914, when it was considered that Balinese resistance was sufficiently controlled, and the army was replaced by a police force. The Dutch then reorganized the Government of the island along the lines it had under the Radjas; those who bad been favorable to the Dutch, their allies in Gianyar and Karangasem, were allowed to retain their autocratic rights over the people of their districts and were given certain supremacy over other ruling princes, mostly the descendants of the former Radjas. They were made puppet regents, responsible to the Government for the behaviour of their subjects and for the payment of taxes, which they collect through relatives whom they appoint as chiefs, pungawa, of the districts under their control. Each regent is, however, supervised by a Dutch Controller, who is supposed to act as his " elder brother " and whose orders are called recommendations.