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Chapter One

The Island of Bali

MANY LABELS have been used to advertise the island of Bali according to her most striking qualities as seen by the outsider: "Island of Demons," "Island of Gods," "Land of A Thousand Temples," "The Last Paradise," and so on. This trend began not too long ago, at the time when Bali entered the scene of international tourism, in due course becoming Indonesia's number one attraction.

There is much truth in the contentions of these labels; occasional diversions from the actual situation are often flagrant understatement (the number of modern temples, as opposed to antiquities, is much larger than suggested above). However, in the context of this book, and in order to understand the topic, it is essential to view the island of Bali not with the eyes of the outsider, the proverbial Innocent Abroad, but with at least some understanding of the way in which the Balinese traditionally reacted to and were influenced by their environment.

The data concerning Balinese views on their earlier local history have been taken from certain Balinese literary works and legends, as well as from the archaeological sites and remains which are discussed in the book's guide. Since, to the Balinese of that early period, Bali was the actual center of the whole world, local history was also a matter of cos-mological importance. Even a brief introduction to this subject, as given in the present chapter, may provide us with a backdrop for further discussions and actual visits to the monuments, whose origins derive from Balinese reflections on their position in the universe. Let us then begin with some basic observations.

Bali is an island. This fact is all the more clear because Bali is so tiny, unlike the continent-sized islands of Java, Sumatra or Borneo (Kalimantan). Wherever you are in Bali, the sea is always present, even if only in a river running to the ocean.

For the Balinese, the sea was especially important because of its connection with death in the Nether World. This perhaps explains why they were not a seafaring people. They turned their eyes in a different direction—to the mountains from which the rivers originate. The water of the river is very different from that of the salty sea; no connection exists between death as such and the water flowing from mountainous springs, which purifies and fertilizes. While the ashes from cremations far from the coast are cast into rivers, this is because ashes must be returned to the sea—the abode of the powers of death.

The sea thus held little attraction for the Balinese other than as a source of fish. Apart from their expeditions to East Java and Lombok, both of which they politically influenced for a period of time, the Balinese kept to their own island. Any Balinese who turned up in Old Batavia during the Dutch East India Company's rule did so involuntarily—as slaves, who later lived there as freedmen, craftsmen and soldiers. In the latter capacity we find them also in the service of the rulers of Madura, fighting in East Java.

The waters surrounding the island, especially the dangerous Indian Ocean to the south, served an isolating function. The northern Bali Sea—an extension of the Java Sea—however, was an important channel of contact with seafarers from India in the west and China in the north. During the first millennium A.D. there were also contacts with Java. Beginning in the 13th and 14th centuries there were contacts with East Java, primarily with Majapahit, the great empire which spread all over the archipelago.

While its island identity is important, it is equally crucial to see Bali in its larger geographical and cultural context. Seen in the broadest terms, Bali is part of one of the world's most intriguing cultural areas— the Indonesian Archipelago. Marked by geographical variety and riches, this area has always had manifold connections with the outside world. Bali is part of the great belt of islands marking the archipelago's southern boundary, which runs from the northern tip of Sumatra on through Java, the Lesser Sunda Islands (Nusa Tenggara) and Maluku, to Australia and West New Guinea (Irian Jaya). Bali is the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands, situated between East Java and Lombok.

Bali belongs to Western Indonesia rather than the East. The two-mile strait between Java and Gilimanuk on Bali's west coast is not an actual boundary. In many ways West Bali (Jembrana)—the only part of the island notably affected by Islam—is nearer East Java than Central and South Bali, from which it has long been sealed off by mountains and impenetrable forests. The coastal road is a modern creation. During the 1930s the forests were opened up slightly for internal transmigration, freeing parts of Central Bali from overpopulation. Similarly, the far tip of East Java was poorly connected with its hinterland before construction of an overland road in the 19th century.

Figure 4: Southeast Asia and Wallace's line.

Bali at one time—albeit long ago—was actually connected with East Java by a land bridge. The island rests on the so-called Sunda Shelf, an enormous continental plate protruding from the Asian mainland. This shelf supporting most of the Larger Sunda Islands is nowadays covered by the Java Sea and its annexes; its mean depth ranges between 40 and 50 meters. During the Pleistocene glacial periods, enormous ice caps solidified much of the world's waters, resulting in lowered sea levels everywhere. The Sunda Shelf fell dry in parts and periodically gave way to a land mass. Successive orogenic movements eventually gave the Sunda Land and Shelf their present surface and structure.

Sunda Land's eastern border consisted of a series of deep basins essentially corresponding with A. R. Wallace's "Line" dividing the animal worlds of Asia and Australia. This is a faunal break of eminent importance, whose southern end coincides with the Lombok Strait that separates Bali from Lombok. fifteen miles wide, and in its northern parts up to 1300 meters deep, this is a treacherous area for navigators. The difference in the flora and fauna between luxuriant Bali and arid Lombok is significant in terms of the "Wallace Line."

Southeast of Bali is the island of Nusa Penida, or Pandita (colloquially changed to "Bandit Island"). Under the rule of Central Bali's former Klungkung kingdom, Pandita was a devil's island to which criminals were banished. Another dynasty of Balinese princes, from Karan-gasem, crossed Lombok Strait to rule over Lombok from the mid-18th to nearly the end of the 19th century. Lombok adopted Islam during the religion's eastward spread, which missed Hindu Bali.

Bali's north coast, hardly more than a narrow strip between mountains and sea, did not favor outside contacts reaching farther inland. It is mainly covered by one extensive district, Buleleng. To the west, north of Jembrana, lies Pulaki, a remote stretch of country whose cosmological situation is highly unfavorable, located as it is both near the sea and to the west, where the sun sets and death rules. To the Balinese, little could be worse.

On the other hand, a location in the mountains and in the east (where the sun rises and life dominates) is highly auspicious. That is exactly where Bali's most sacred mountain, the Gunung (Mount) Agung or Great Peak of Bali, lies. It is also the island's highest mountain (3,142 meters). The great all-Balinese sanctuary, Pura (temple) Besakih, is on its slopes.

The mountains of Central and East Bali make up the island's solid core, which resembles a vertebral spine running from the center to the east in a curved line: Gunung Batukau (the Peak of Tabanan, 2,276 meters), Bratan (2,020 meters) north of Lake Bratan, and, most impressive, Gunung Batur (1,717 meters). From the bottom of an earlier crater—whose enormous caldera wall has axes of 10 and 15 kilometers and encloses the crescent-shaped 5-kilometer-long Lake Batur—rises its secondary volcanic cone. On the lake's eastern border lies the village of Trunyan, mentioned as early as Hindu Bali's first inscriptions. The road along the crater wall provides a most wonderful view of the crater complex. On the wall's northwestern corner rises Mount Penulisan (1,745 meters), atop which sits a highly sacred sanctuary. The two major roads connecting South Bali with the North pass either the Batur caldera (Kintamani) or Lake Bratan. Mount Batur was ascended for the first time in 1906 by the painter W. O. J. Nieuwenkamp, a pioneer of archaeological research in Bali.

Both Batur and Gunung Agung are active volcanoes, and gave ample evidence of their destructive powers in 1926 and (after a long silence) in 1963, respectively. Yet the mountains are auspicious places, inhabited by the gods. There is no mountain without a deity (no more than there is any lake without one). In Indonesian thought, ancestors also dwell in the mountains. The direction where the mountains lie (kaja) is naturally favorable. Mountain springs provide water for Bali's terraced paddy fields. They also provide the "holy" water which purifies and assists the soul of a dead person in reaching its heavenly destination, or higher still—final liberation. Priests prepare various types of ritualistic holy water, a sacrament of such importance that the Balinese religion is called agama tirtha, "the holy-water religion."

For North Bali, the mountains are in the south, for South Bali in the north. Kaja is thus to the south from Buleleng, and to the north from Central Bali. Kelod, "to the sea," inversely is south for Central Bali, and north for Bulèlèng. Relation to actual compass points, however, is of little importance—more essential are the related cosmological phenomena, and the consequences of this entire system of auspicious and evil correlation. There are other categories, apparently of divergent origin, which are more directly connected with the compass (see Chapter 4). There are also vertically opposed directions to be considered: the Upper World of the Gods (worshipped with "light" offerings served in stands) and the Nether World of the Demons ("dark" offerings put on the ground). No one aspect is complete in itself. The world consists, and actually is in need, of both good and evil, which complement each other. Only unification of all aspects and elements results in the Oneness, Totality, or Ultimate Reality which is behind the apparent diversity in this "phenomenal world" of relativity (see Chapter 4).

Between Upper and Nether World in this Universe (for the Balinese identical with the world to which he is directly connected) is the madyapada, the Middle World of man. It is also that part between the mountains and the sea. In a way it is a vortex for all directions and conflicting tendencies. This center is anywhere the action is: in the village, in a temple, but most especially in temples regarded as the "navel" (pura puseh). It is also where during Creation the World Ocean first started to "turn into curd" when churned (pura kentel gumi).

In Indian cosmology there is yet another very different center of the Universe. The archipelago's hinduized peoples were well aware of Mount Meru (Méru), Mahāmeru, or Sumeru, the world's central point and axis. In Indian cosmology this Cosmic Mountain was situated on the central continent of Jambudvīpa, where India itself was located. The mountain's appearance was variously described. According to one view its peak was surrounded by four additional tops on a lower level. Some-times another foursome was added still lower down (for this 1+4 + 4 symbolism see Chapter 4). The Javanese naturally wanted Mount Meru closer, and proposed that it had been removed from the central continent to East Java. During transportation, Mount Meru crumbled, and the main body and its top were separated. Interpreted in terms of modern Javanese topography, the main body became East Java's Mount Semeru (Sumeru), the island's highest (and still active) volcano. Stutterheim quite plausibly identifies Mount Meru's top with Mount Penanggungan, an extinct volcano of medium height (1,653 meters), rising as a solitary landmark from the plains of Surabaya. It is remarkable for its arrangement of 1 + 4 + 4 tops, which corresponds exactly with Mount Meru; Penanggungan therefore seems the best candidate for being the Cosmic Mountain's broken-off top.

Figure 5: Telaga Waja. (See also page 161.)

The importance which the Javanese attached to this specific mountain corroborates this proposal. Besides two sacred watering places, as many as 80 terraced sanctuaries are spread over Penanggunggan's slopes. The story of Mount Meru's removal from the central continent was likewise known in Bali, and was naturally translated into Balinese terms: Mount Meru was the Gunung Agung. It is curious that the Balinese connected this transfer with the historical Majapahit period. This was actually a mythological stage in Balinese history; their relations to Majapahit (see Chapter 3) marked the beginning of everything. During that period, God Paśupati moved Mahāmeru's top from the Indian continent to Bali, simultaneously sending his children Mahadewa and Dewi Danu to the island. Previously, however, the saintly hermit Sang Kulpu-tih had arrived from Majapahit to establish the Besakih sanctuary. In a way this story, told by the Balinese mythical and legendary history Usana Bali, stresses Bali's double relation with India as well as Java. Most important in the Mahāmeru transplant is Bali's direct connection with the Cosmic Mountain because of the Gunung Agung. The arrival of a new religion and its way of life is somewhat explained by the interference of Paśupati's children. Their struggle against indigenous powers, demons, and giants took place in the sacred land between the parallel rivers, Pakerisan and Petanu. Certain antiquities of an apparently unusual Hinduistic type, such as the colossal head in the Pura Gaduh temple at Blahbatu, are ascribed to giants antagonistic to the new way of life.

There are also various versions of another mythical event regarding Bali's geography, its former connection to Java, and the final separation between the two islands. One version contains an exact date for this event, corresponding with A.D. 202. Curiously enough, the same year is recorded in the Old Javanese panegyric Nāgarakrtāgama, (1365) for a similar geological occurrence—the separation of East Java and the island of Madura. Another legend puts the Bali-Java separation much later, during the Kediri period of Javanese history (1042-1222). It was effected by a certain brahman, Mpu (the Lord) Sidimantra, who was forced to banish one of his sons to the Gunung Agung region, at that time still at Java's extreme end. To prevent the exile from returning, he drew a line with his finger across the isthmus connecting Bali and Java, thus creating an island.

Whereas North Bali does not invite entry, Central Bali offers ready access once past the dangerous Lombok Strait. Here most of the remains of Hindu-Balinese kingdoms were found. Between Jembrana in the west and Karangasem in the east are the districts and former kingdoms of Tabanan, Badung, Gianyar, Bangli, and Klungkung (see Chapters 3 and 6). The district of Mengwi was divided between Tabanan, Badung and Gianyar in 1891.

Most of the south's former kingdoms are comparatively narrow strips of land, often reaching from the coast far into the mountains, following the upstream courses of certain important rivers. Divided over each of these domains were three different officially-related state temples: one in the mountains, one in the plains (the middle country), and one on the coast. Early immigrants able to obtain footholds in Central Bali eventually penetrated the interior by following river courses. Yet none of these mountain torrents are in any way navigable; their waters vary from shallow in the dry season to turbulent during rains. Their violent waters, from the mountains to the coast, cut deep ravines into enormous layers of tuff—or paras—the gray conglomerate of volcanic ashes turned into soft rock through contact with rain and flowing water. Tuff is found all over the island under the surface humus layer, and the shape and boundaries of Balinese kingdoms were determined by the course of the ravines carved into it. Most important historically and archaeologically was the region between the two major rivers, Pakerisan and Petanu. The rivers ran parallel, framing a strip of hinduized land stretching far inland.

Except for a few motor roads for which bridges have been constructed, all roads still parallel the rivers. If we do not want to cross the ravines, we must often make detours to reach a place only a short distance away—as the crow flies. Even to the sure-footed Balinese who easily walk up and down the ravines (or so it seems), the rivers and their valleys have always been unrelenting landmarks. Rivers coursing through the tuff layers occasionally undermined and brought down rock masses. To early peoples this seemed to be a supernatural manifestation requiring magical counteractions. It is understandable that sanctuaries, cloisters, hermitages, and monuments for kings and their retinue—all of these themselves concentrations of mysterious powers—were situated near these waterways.

Figure 6: The Pejeng Moon. Pura Penataran Sasih, Pejeng.