The Dutch quickly sent in reinforcements to revenge their stunning defeat in Lombok. Thev laid waste to the island. In Mataram. the Balinese defenders chose the rite of pupulan over defeat or surrender to the Dutch. The island’s raja later chose the same fate in another village. As the Dutch ad-
Balinese exercise of their right of salvage.
The vessel was a Chinese-owned schooner the Sri Ktimala. out of Banjarmasin. Bor¬neo. It struck the reef near Sanur not far from the Badung-Gianyar border. The area’s people plundered the ship with the complicity, it was alleged, of the rajas. The Chinese owner of the craft gave an altogether implausible account of his misfor¬tune and demanded fanciful indemnity for the cargo. To the original claim he added, as a curious afterthought, large quantities of gold and silver. The Dutch scaled down his claims and presented the bill to the Raja of Badung who vanced. men. women and children emerged from the village as if in a trance. If they did not die by the kris. they rushed headlong into the tire of the troups. By Dutch count, ten of the highest-ranking nobles of that kingdom flatly refused to pay. The Dewa Agung backed him in his defiance. So did the Raja of Tabanan who just then was also involved in a crisis over a recent ceremonv ofperished. The Dutch got their vic¬tory — by default. The events in Lombok in 1894 left deep scars upon the Balinese soul and the Dutch conscience.
The events in Lombok also disturbed the Dewa Agung and other leaders in Bali. They grew increasingly uneasy about the Dutch presence in their island. It was widely assumed that some outrageous incident would launch vet another Dutch expedition¬ary force. That incident occurred on May 27. 191)4. Again it involved a shipwreck and the suttee which he had permitted despite Dutch protest. So in June of 191)6 the Dutch block¬aded the coasts of Badung and Tabanan while they drew up certain ultimatums and assembled a military expedition.
The Sixth Military Expedition to Bali, consistine of infantry, cavalry, artillery and naval support, arrived off the southern coast of Bali in September that year. They sent the Raja of Badunn a final ultimatum. He re¬jected it. On September 14. the Dutch land¬ed their troops on Sanur Beach.
Kesiman toward Denpasar. expecting the action to be more of a dress parade than a pitched battle. Marching in orderly ranks along a roadway, walled on either side, which led to the royal palace, they found the town apparently deserted and smoke rising over the puri. The most disquieting factor was the sound of the-wild beating of drums within the palace walls.
As the Dutch drew closer, they observed a strange, silent procession emerging from the main’gate of the puri. It was led by the Raja, seated in his state palanquin carried by four bearers, dressed in white cremation gar¬ments but splendidly bejeweled and armed with a magnificent kris. The Raja was fol¬lowed by officials of his court, armed guards, priests, wives, children and retainers. like-
wise dressed in white, flowers in their hair, many of them almost as richly ornamented and as splendidy armed as was their ruler.
One hundred paces from the startled Dutch, the Raja halted his bearers, stepped from his palanquin, and gave a signal. A priest plunged his dagger into the Raja’s breast. Others of the company also began turning their daggers upon themselves or upon one another. The Dutch troops, start¬led into action by a stray gunshot and react¬ing to attack by lance and spear, directed rifle and artillery fire into the surging crowd. Some of the women mockingly threw jewels and gold coins to the soldiers. More persons emerged from the palace gate. The mounds of corpses rose higher and higher.
To the scene of carnage was soon added the spectacle of looting as the soldiers strip¬ped the valuables from the corpses and then set about sacking the palace ruins. It was a slaughter and self-slaughter of the innocents made all the more appalling by reason of its recurrence that same afternoon in nearby Pemacutan. a minor state of Badung. There the frail old Raja and his terrified court, having heard what had happened in Denpa¬sar. elected the same fate. When the victo¬rious Dutch troops marched from Denpasar to Pemacutan. the Raja and his retainers were ready to enact once again the grisly rites of pupman. This time the Dutch re¬frained from participation if not from profit.
The Dutch expeditionary force marched next upon Tabanan. where the wives of its venerable old Raja had earlier followed their husband in death by jumping into his cremation fire in the rite of suttee — against Dutch protests. The new Raja and Crown Prince fled from the puri when the Dutch advanced. They eventually gave themselves up to their adversaries. The Kutch informed them they would be exiled to Madura or Lombok. The Raja and Prince instead chose suicide in their Denpasar prison. For lack of a kris. the raja plunged a sirih knife into his

The aftermath of the 1906 Denpasar puputan: the bodies of Balinese victims piled outside the palace, above; and, the body of thè Raja of Badung wrapped in a woven mat, right.
opium monopoly. The Dutch landed a small party of troops to march into Gelgel to pun¬ish throat and the crown prince took poison — and Tabanan followed Badung into the Dutch sphere.
As a side excursion to their invasion of Klungkung. the Dutch made a show of force in Klungkung hoping to provoke a show of resistance by the Dewa Agung. But the Dewa Agung was either too cowed or too prudent to oblige and the Dutch withdrew.
Later, the Dutch presented the Dewa Agung with a whole new set of agreements almost indistinguishable from ultimatums. He accepted them virtually at sight. All knew that the next move would be Dutch imposition of an administrative system upon Klungkung. By 1908. disorders broke out in the area. In Gelgel. the punggawa’s men intimidated and attacked some agents of the
the punggawa. The punggawa mounted a counterattack. So many Dutch soldiers were injured that the detachment withdrew to the scacoast. The punggawa then sought shelter in Klungkung, where the Dewa Agung. cor¬rectly anticipating naval bombardment and land maneuvers, had already authorized cer¬tain measures of defense. The bombardment swiftly followed. It demolished Gelgel and destroyed parts of Klungkung. Then came the troops with their field pieces, which they deployed in the square in front of the puri at a distance no more than 200 meters from the main gate. The Dutch began firing admoni¬tory salvos.
kris blades into their own hearts. The whole company — men. women and children alike The Dewa Agung ordered the gongs to sound the call to the puputan. He himself led a procession of some 200 persons who emerged from the puri to confront the Dutch soldiers. Clad all in white, he carried in one hand a ceremonial lance with a golden tip and in the other his ancestral kris. Pausing about 100 meters from the momentarily si¬lent cannon, he bent over and with an impe¬rious gesture thrust the kris blade into the ground. Thus, if the prophecy of his high priest came true, his magical kris would cre¬ate a great chasm which would swallow up all of his enemies. As the Dewa Agung straightened up. he received a gunshot in the knee. Before he could even crumple, he was killed outright by another. Six of his wives knelt around him and solemnly drove their engaged in ritualistic self-immolation or sacrificed one another while murderous can¬non and gunfire contributed to the mayhem.
There were very few royal or other survivors of the Klungkung puputan. The puri was razed, except for one gateway which led to a barracks and a prison. What little re¬mained of Klunekung’s ancient glory, had vanished, but the last bright blaze of martyr¬dom had burnt awav many stains. On April 18. 1908. after 600 years of rule in Bah. the lineal descendants of the Majapahit emperors were decimated, the ritualistic victims of relentless Western intrusion.Although the punitive expeditions against Bali in the 1840s passed almost unnoticed in the outside world, the reports of the piipuian of 19(16 in Badung and in 191)8 in Klungkung shocked private citizens, religious groups and governments from The I lague to Lon-don.”" Paris and New York. Protests poured into the colonial office condemning Dutch reprisals believed to be wildly disproportion¬ate to any known Balinese offenses. Also under pressure with regard to their policies in Java. Sumatra and the eastern islands, the Dutch resolved to make amends. They intro¬duced reforms which led to what they rather sanctimoniously announced and acclaimed as the Ethical Policy.
In 1914. The Dutch replaced their army with a police force. They also reorganized the government along the lines it had had under the rajas. The raja continued to reign in magnificence. But as regent, he ruled by consent of the Dutch resident and con¬trôleur. The latter prompted his important decisions and relieved him of much routine by controlling the pnnggawa as well. The contrôleur soon introduced the engineer who built the public works, the doctor who opened a clinic, the teacher who established a school, and eventually the military officer who recruited and trained a few soldiers. Visitors to Bali began to report that the is¬land was just about the prettiest little exhibit in the whole of the Indies of Dutch efficiency and enlightenment.
Not the least of the evidences of ethical Dutch behavior and Balinese benefit was the absence of any conspicuous colony of West¬ern residents. From the very beginning, the Residency opposed all efforts of Dutch big business firms to open up rubber or tea plantations or sugar or tobacco estates such as flourished in Java. Only a very few Dutch business interests therefore found it either expedient or profitable to open up offices in Bali: the lew that appeared were to be found in Buleleng and Denpasar. The most conspicuous was K.P.M.. the giant steamship line which linked Bali to Java and the east¬ern islands and began to experiment with tourism. The really important foreign enterprises in Bali were those of the Chinese, who acquired much urban property and a few coffee gardens and coconut groves. The Chinese generally held them in the name of a Balinese wife, but were rigorously excluded from acquiring other agricultural
land. Protection of the Balinese farmers against the exploitation of foreign merchants and planters and protection of the Balinese culture against sudden and disruptive influences constituted the two great achieve ments of the Dutch colonial administration.

Popularity: 15% [?]