Puputan

The Raja of Buleleng , who in 1849 with 400 followers in the Puputan, committed the mass suicide against the Dutch, Le Petit Journal , 1849

Puputan in Badung, 1906

Monument to the Puputan 1906 in Taman Puputan, Denpasar , Bali

The independence fighter I Gusti Ngurah Rai organized one last puputan against the Dutch colonial army in the Battle of Marga in 1946, in which 1,371 soldiers were killed with him

Puputan is a Balinese term for ritualized mass suicide , preferably in the face of annihilation or destruction against conquerors. Important puputans happened in 1906 and 1908 when the Balinese were conquered by the Dutch.

The puputan in Badung in 1906

On September 14, 1906, an overwhelming force of the Dutch army landed on the beach at Sanur ; there was no significant resistance and the armed forces marched into Denpasar , Bali as if in a parade . They crossed an apparently devastated, abandoned city and reached the royal palace. They recognized smoke rising from the puri (temple) and heard a wild drumming coming from the palace walls.

When they got to the palace, a silent procession came out, led by the Raja , carried in a litter by four porters . The Raja was dressed in traditional white robes, such as those worn by the Balinese at cremations. He wore magnificent jewelery and was armed with a ceremonial kris . The other people in the procession were court officials of the raja, guards, priests, children, wives, and servants, all of whom behaved similarly.

When the procession was a hundred paces from the Dutch army, it stopped. The Raja got down from the litter and gave a sign to a priest, who then thrust his sword into the Raja's chest. The rest of the procession began killing themselves and others.

A graze and an attack with lances and spears prompted the Dutch to open up the fight with rifles and artillery. Women threw jewels and gold coins at the soldiers with scornful words. As more and more people came out of the palace, the number of deaths continued to rise. Almost 1,000 Balinese died, according to Dutch sources even up to 3,500.

The soldiers robbed the bodies of their valuables and tore down the ruins of the burning palace.

The puputan in 1908 in Klungkung

Another puputan occurred on April 18, 1908 at the Palace of Klungkung .

See also

• History of Indonesia

literature

• Vicki Baum : Love and Death in Bali . ISBN 3-462-03122-8 (Contrary to the title it is not about the love story, but a novel-like description of the ritual life of a Balinese village and its destruction by Dutch colonizers at the beginning of the last century).
• Gregor Krause and Karl With : Bali. Spirit, Art and Life of Asia. Folkwang-Verlag, Hagen 1922
• Robert Pringle : Bali: Indonesia's Hindu Realm; A short history of  (= Short History of Asia Series). Allen & Unwin , 2004, ISBN 1-86508-863-3 .
• Debbie Guthrie Haer, Juliette Morillot and Irene Toh, Haer: Bali, a traveler's companion . Editions Didier Millet, 2001, ISBN 9789814217354 .

Web links

• Helen Creese: A Puputan Tale: "The Story of a Pregnant Women." In: Indonesia 82, October 2006, pp. 1-37

Individual evidence

1. ^ Pringle, p. 106
2. ↑ Haer, p. 38
3. ↑ http://home.iae.nl/users/arcengel/NedIndie/bali.htm