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The history of Bali goes back thousands of years. Archaeological evidence shows that Bali has been inhabited since at least 2000 BC. The earliest people are Austronesian who moved south from Taiwan into Southeast Asia. Balinese share close links to the other people of the Indonesian archipelago, the Philippines, and Oceania in terms of language and culture.

Although Balinese culture appears to be uniquely their own, it draws strong influences from India, and particularly Hindu culture. This can be trace back to as early as the 1st century AD when traders from the Indian subcontinent arrive in Java and the Indonesian islands.

The earliest mention of Bali appears in the the Blanjong pillar inscription by Sri Kesari Warmadewa in AD 914. It was during that time that the Balinese developed their sophisticated irrigation system for growing rice. Some of the oldest traditions and religious observances of Bali goes as far back as this period.

The Hindu Majapahit Empire was an ancient civilization that also benefited Bali culturally. It flourished in Java from 1293 to 1520. When the power of Majapahit began to decline, many of its intellectuals, artists, priests and musicians moved from Java into Bali.

In 1597, Dutch explorer Cornelis de Houtman became the first European to officially set foot on Bali. However, earlier than that, in 1585, Portuguese sailors shipwrecked in Bali were taken into the service of its ruler, Dewa Agung.

By the 19th century, the Dutch were beginning to strengthen their position across the Indonesian archipelago.
1906 Puputan Monument
1906 Puputan Monument
Author: World Imaging (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported)


From 1840 they began to take political and economic control of the island. The Dutch effectively broke down Balinese society by pitting one Balinese kingdom against the other. The internal strive among the Balinese was then exploited to exert their control over the island. In 1906, the Balinese royal family and thousands of its members marched into suicide, called puputan, rather than surrender to the Dutch. Such mass suicides were to repeat themselves in 1908 in Klungkung. With the Balinese ruling class out of the way, the Dutch governors were able to exercise administrative control over the island, but local control over religion and culture generally remained intact.

A lot of what we see in Balinese culture is, surprisingly, a 20th century invention, and with Western influences. The Kecak dance, for example, was created in the 1930's through the work of German musician Walter Spies, in putting together this dance drama based on the Hindu Ramayana.

As with much of Southeast Asia, Bali was occupied by Imperial Japan during the Second World War. It was at that time that a local hero, the Balinese military officer Gusti Ngurah Rai, formed a freedom army to fight the aggressors. The defeat of the Japanese brought back the equally loathed Dutch, and Colonel Gusti Ngurah Rai eventually gave his life in a suicide attack on the Dutch army. He is honored today as a local hero, with his name gracing the Bali International Airport.

In 1946 the Dutch constituted Bali as one of the 13 administrative districts of the newly-proclaimed State of East Indonesia. It stands as a rival state to the Republic of Indonesia which was proclaimed and headed by Sukarno and Hatta. Eventually Bali was included in the "Republic of the United States of Indonesia" when the Netherlands recognised Indonesian independence on 29 December 1949.


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