Covering the history of Bali from before the Bronze Age to the presidency of Megawati Sukarnoputri, this examination highlights the ethnic dynamics of the island and its place in modern Indonesia. Included is an analysis of the arrival of Indian culture, early European contact, and the complex legacies of Dutch control. Also explored are the island's contemporary economic progress and the environmental problems generated by population growth and massive tourist development.
This book tells the story of Bali--the "paradise island of the Pacific"--its rulers and its people, and their encounters with the Western world. Bali is a perennially popular tourist destination. It is also home to a fascinating people with a long and dramatic history of interactions with foreigners, particularly after the arrival of the first Dutch fleet in 1597. In this first comprehensive history of Bali, author Willard Hanna chronicles Bali through the centuries as well as the islanders' current struggle to preserve their unique identity amidst the financially necessary incursions of tourism. Illustrated with more than forty stunning photographs, A Brief History of Bali is a riveting tale of one ancient culture's vulnerability--and resilience--in the modern world.
Sultans, Spices, and Tsunamis: The Incredible Story of the World's Largest Archipelago Indonesia is by far the largest nation in Southeast Asia and has the fourth largest population in the world after the United States. Indonesian history and culture are especially relevant today as the Island nation is an emerging power in the region with a dynamic new leader. It is a land of incredible diversity and unending paradoxes that has a long and rich history stretching back a thousand years and more. Indonesia is the fabled "Spice Islands" of every school child's dreams--one of the most colorful and fascinating countries in history. These are the islands that Europeans set out on countless voyages of discovery to find and later fought bitterly over in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. This was the land that Christopher Columbus sought, and Magellan actually reached and explored. One tiny Indonesian island was even exchanged for the island of Manhattan in 1667! This fascinating history book tells the story of Indonesia as a narrative of kings, traders, missionaries, soldiers and revolutionaries, featuring stormy sea crossings, fiery volcanoes, and the occasional tiger. It recounts the colorful visits of foreign travelers who have passed through these shores for many centuries--from Chinese Buddhist pilgrims and Dutch adventurers to English sea captains and American movie stars. For readers who want an entertaining introduction to Asia's most fascinating country, this is delightful reading.
New in the Short Histories of Asia series, edited by Milton Osborne, this is a readable, well-informed and comprehensive history of Indonesia and its peoples, from ancient origins to the present day.
In Bali in the Early Nineteenth Century, Helen Creese examines the nature of the earliest sustained cross-cultural encounter between the Balinese and the Dutch through the eyewitness accounts of Pierre Dubois, the first colonial official to live in Bali. From 1828 to 1831, Dubois served as Civil Administrator to the Badung court in southern Bali. He later recorded his Balinese experiences for the Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences in a series of personal letters to an anonymous correspondent. This first ethnography of Bali provides rich, perceptive descriptions of early nineteenth-century Balinese politics, society, religion and culture. The book includes a complete edition and translation of Dubois’ Légère Idée de Balie en 1830/Sketch of Bali in 1830.
Every year, millions of tourists visit Bali in Indonesia, but what you don’t see in the glossy brochures is the rampant prostitution, the bloody turf wars waged between local gangs and the drug- and alcohol-induced Western hooliganism. Tourists are robbed, raped and murdered and get into vicious fights. In this raw and extraordinary exposé, Scott offers up a Bali choking with violent street fights, cheap sex and aggressive crime.
Much of human history has played itself out along the rim of the Indian Ocean. In a first-of-its-kind attempt, bestselling author Sanjeev Sanyal tells the history of this significant region, which stretches across East Africa, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent to South East Asia and Australia. He narrates a fascinating tale about the earliest human migrations out of Africa and the great cities of Angkor and Vijayanagar; medieval Arab empires and Chinese ‘treasure fleets’; the rivalries of European colonial powers and a new dawn. Sanjeev explores remote archaeological sites, ancient inscriptions, maritime trading networks and half-forgotten oral histories, to make exciting revelations. In his inimitable style, he draws upon existing and new evidence to challenge well-established claims about famous historical characters and the flow of history. Adventurers, merchants, explorers, monks, swashbuckling pirates, revolutionaries and warrior princesses populate this colourful and multifaceted narrative. The Ocean of Churn takes the reader on an amazing journey through medieval geopolitics and eyewitness accounts of long-lost cities to the latest genetic discoveries about human origins, bringing alive a region that has defined civilization from the very beginning.
This book tells the history of Bali—the "paradise island of the Pacific"—its rulers and its people, and their encounters with the Western world. Spanning the entire history of Bali since the beginning of recorded time, it stretches the culture and politics of the island as a backdrop to the dilemma hat now confronts the Balinese: the choice between economic decay or cultural decadence in the face of "cultural tourism"—Bali's only promising industry. Balinese history tells a fascinating story. For a thousand years, the peculiar splendor of Balinese–Hindu culture came very close to satisfying the social, religious and artistic needs of the people. The arrival of European visitors in the 1920s and 1930s soon made the island's magical charms known to the outside world, and forever changed the "real, unspoiled" Bali. This is the story about the vulnerability—and durability—of an ancient culture to the modern world. There already exists a wealth of literature on Balinese art and thought and the singularly beautiful Balinese way of life which often seems to outsiders like a lavishly costumed pageant continuously and merrily played out against a superbly scenic tropical backdrop. Except for several Balinese court chronicles, impenetrable to most foreigners, and a few other works, mainly in Dutch, by Western writers of the nineteenth or early twentieth century, there is almost nothing of any consequence with regard to Balinese history, economics, and politics, or the roots of the present dilemma. It is the aim, therefore of this account to provide a background sketch of historic events, to trace the complications of domestic and international politics, to depict the changing economic scene, and to introduce the key characters, Balinese and Western, of the island drama of the last millennium as it now comes to an especially significant new climax. Since all else in Bali cues to the cultural tradition, there is also a chapter dealing with the basic conceptual elements of a life–outlook best described as Balinism. A new introduction by Adrian Vickers, a professor of history at the University of Sydney, places the book into the context of the literature on Bali and the impact that the Western world and tourism are currently having on the island.
