History of Bali

Bali has been inhabited for at least 2,000 years. Archaeological finds in Gilimamuk (West Bali) indicate settlement by Austronesian peoples from around the 3rd century BC. These early Balinese — the Bali Aga — lived in self-sufficient village communities, practiced rice cultivation, and maintained animistic religions. Some of their descendants still live in isolated villages like Tenganan and Trunyan.

From the 1st century AD, Indian influences reached the island via Southeast Asian trade routes. The oldest Hindu inscriptions in Bali date from the 9th century — written in Old Javanese and Sanskrit. The Pura Besakih (Mother Temple) was likely founded during this era.

In the 10th century, the Balinese king Udayana married the Javanese princess Mahendradatta — a union that linked Bali more closely with Java. Their son Airlangga united parts of Java and Bali into a powerful realm. The culture that developed during this time — a fusion of Hinduism, Buddhism, and native animism — laid the foundation for the unique religious system that still defines Bali today.

The decisive event in Bali's history was the conquest by the Javanese Majapahit Empire in 1343 under the legendary commander Gajah Mada. The Majapahit Empire was the most powerful Hindu empire in Southeast Asia — it controlled large parts of present-day Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

The Majapahit brought Javanese court culture, art, literature, and a sophisticated caste system to Bali. Javanese nobles, priests, craftsmen, and artists settled on the island and founded the dynasties that would rule until the colonial era. Balinese high culture — the dances, temple architecture, gamelan music, shadow play tradition (Wayang) — is essentially a development of Javanese-Hindu culture.

As Java converted to Islam in the 15th and 16th centuries, thousands of Hindu priests, nobles, artists, and scholars fled to Bali — the last bastion of Hinduism in the region. This exodus greatly enriched Balinese culture and made the island what it is today: a Hindu enclave in the world's largest Muslim nation.

From the Majapahit successor states emerged the Balinese kingdoms: Gelgel (15th-17th century) and its successor Klungkung (1686-1908) were the nominal overlords, alongside eight other kingdoms (Badung, Tabanan, Gianyar, Bangli, Karangasem, Buleleng, Jembrana, and Mengwi), which often waged war against each other.

The Dutch East India Company (VOC) established trading posts on Bali from the 17th century but could not subdue the island for a long time. The Balinese kingdoms were militarily strong and politically astute. It was not until the 19th century that the Dutch began systematically conquering the island — the north (Buleleng) fell in 1849 after bloody battles.

The South Bali kingdoms resisted to the bitter end. What followed is one of the most harrowing chapters in colonial history:

On September 20, 1906, Dutch troops marched on the royal palace of Denpasar (Badung). Instead of surrendering, the king, his family, and hundreds of courtiers, dressed in ceremonial white, marched towards the enemy — and ran directly into the Dutch rifles. This was the Puputan (literally: "the end") — a ritual mass suicide where the Balinese preferred death to submission. Those not hit by bullets stabbed themselves with the kris (dagger).

Up to 1,000 Balinese died in the Puputan of Badung. Two years later, in 1908, the tragedy repeated in Klungkung: The Deva Agung (king) and 200 followers chose the same path. The Dutch soldiers, who had expected little resistance, were shocked. Reports of the Puputan caused outrage in Europe and severely damaged the colonial power's reputation.

The Puputan Monument on Lapangan Puputan in Denpasar commemorates this tragedy — it is a place of silent mourning and national pride.

After the Japanese occupation (1942-1945) and the Indonesian declaration of independence in 1945, Bali became part of the Republic of Indonesia. The transition was not peaceful: On November 20, 1946, the Balinese freedom fighter I Gusti Ngurah Rai died fighting the returning Dutch at Marga (Tabanan) — a final Puputan. Bali's international airport bears his name.

The darkest hour of modern Bali was the massacres of 1965-1966. Following a failed coup attempt in Jakarta, General Suharto ordered the annihilation of the Communist Party (PKI). In Bali, where the PKI had support among landless peasants, a blood frenzy ensued: Between 80,000 and 100,000 Balinese — an estimated 5% of the population — were murdered in a few months, often by neighbors and fellow villagers. The graves have never been exhumed, and to this day, people in Bali only speak of this time behind closed doors.

Bali's tourism began in the 1920s and 1930s when European artists and intellectuals "discovered" the island. The German painter Walter Spies, the Mexican artist Miguel Covarrubias, and the Canadian musician Colin McPhee created with their works a romantic image of Bali as the "last paradise" — an image that persists to this day.

Mass tourism began with the opening of the Grand Bali Beach Hotel in Sanur in 1966 and the completion of the international airport in 1969. The Indonesian government under Suharto deliberately planned Bali as a tourism enclave — the SCETO master plan of 1971 (created by the World Bank) stipulated that tourism should be concentrated in the area around Nusa Dua and Kuta to "protect" the rest of the island.

Reality overwhelmed the plan: From 30,000 tourists in 1970, numbers rose to 1 million (1997), 3.5 million (2015), and over 6 million (2019). Kuta, Seminyak, Canggu, and Ubud transformed into tourist centers. The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 brought tourism to a standstill and mercilessly exposed Bali's extreme dependence on foreign visitors.

The Bali bombings of October 12, 2002 (202 dead, including 88 Australians) and 2005 (20 dead) were deep cuts. The attacks by Islamist terrorists in the bars of Kuta shook Bali's self-image as a peaceful island of the gods. The Bali Bombing Memorial on Jalan Legian commemorates the victims.

Today, Bali struggles to balance its economic dependence on tourism with the preservation of its unique culture and environment — a challenge that will define the 21st century.