Bali is located in Central Indonesia, western most of the Selat Sunda (Lesser Sunda) in the Indian Ocean, East of Java across the narrow Bali Strait. The principal cities are the northern port of Singaraja and the capital Denpasar, near the southern coast. Although Bali is relatively small, it is densely populated and culturally and economically one of the most important islands of Indonesia. Largely mountainous, with active volcanoes, it rises to 10,308 ft (3,142 m) at Gunung Agung (Mt. Agung); there is a great fertile plain to the south. Fauna include tigers and deer. Bali is known for its giant Waringin trees, sacred to the inhabitants.
Economically and culturally, Bali is one of the most important islands of Indonesia. Rice is grown on irrigated, terraced hillsides; other crops include sugarcane, coffee, copra, tobacco, fruits, and vegetables. Cattle and hogs are also raised. The Balinese are skilled artisans, particularly in wood carving, and in fashioning objects of tortoiseshell and of gold, silver, and other metals. The women of Bali are noted for their traditional dancing and for their skills in weaving cloth of gold and silver threads, as well as for embroidering silk and cotton clothing.
Ethnic groups: Balinese (89%), Javanese (7%), Baliaga (1%), Madurese (1%).
Religions: Hindu (93.18%), Muslim (4.79%), Christian (1.38%), Buddhist (0.64%).
Languages: Indonesian (official), Balinese.
Time zone: UTC+8
Motto: Bali Dwipa Jaya ("Glorious Bali Island").
Official website: http://www.baliprov.go.id/
The Balinese (a Malayan group closely related to the Javanese) are skillful farmers; rice, the chief crop, is grown with the aid of elaborate irrigation systems. Vegetables, fruits, coffee, and coconuts are also produced. Livestock is important; pigs and cattle are major export items. Industries include food processing, tourism, and handicrafts. The people are noted for their artistic skill (especially wood carving), and their high level of culture, which includes advanced forms of music, folk drama, dancing, and architecture. The principal religion on the island of Bali is a variation of Hinduism that incorporates Polynesian religious rites. They are Hindu in a nation that is overwhelmingly Muslim; their unique ritualistic culture, as well as the island's scenic beauty, has made Bali one of the great tourist attractions of East Asia. An international airport, the Ngurah Rai International Airport was opened in 1969.
The History:
Bali was inhabited by Austronesian peoples by about 2,000, who migrated originally from Taiwan through Maritime Southeast Asia. Culturally and linguistically, the Balinese are thus closely related to the peoples of the Indonesian archipelago, the Phillipines, and Oceania. Stone tools dating from this time have been found near the village of Cekik in the island's west.
Balinese culture was strongly influenced by Indian, and particularly Sanskrit culture, in a process beginning around the 1st century AD. The name Balidwipa has been discovered from various inscriptions, including the Blanjong charter issued by Sri Kesari Warmadewa in 913 AD and mentioning Walidwipa. It was during this time that the complex irrigation system subak was developed to grow rice. Some religious and cultural traditions still in existence today can be traced back to this period. Klungklung, North East of Denpasar, was the capital of the native rulers from the 17th century until 1908.
The Hindu Majapahit Empire (1293–1520 AD) on eastern Java founded a Balinese colony in 1343. When the empire declined, there was an exodus of intellectuals, artists, priests and musicians from fleeing from Java to Bali in the 15th century (1513 – 1528)
The First European contact with Bali is thought to have been when Dutch explorer Cornelis de Houtman arrived in 1597, though a Portuguese ship had foundered off the Bukit Peninsula as early as 1585. The Dutch East India Company began its trade with the island in the early 17th century. In the 1840s, a presence in Bali was established, first in the island's north, by playing various distrustful Balinese realms against each other. The Dutch mounted large naval and ground assaults first against the Sanur region and then Denpasar. The Balinese were hopelessly overwhelmed in number and armament, but rather than face the humiliation of surrender, they mounted a final defensive but suicidal assault, or Puputan. Despite Dutch demands for surrender, an estimated 4,000 Balinese marched to their death against the invaders. Afterwards the Dutch governors were able to exercise little influence over the island, and local control over religion and culture generally remained intact.
Dutch sovereignty was not firmly established until after a series of colonial wars (1846 - 1849), and the entire island was not occupied until 1908, after the quelling of two rebellions. Dutch rule over Bali came later, was more aggressively fought for, and was never as well established as in other parts of Indonesia such as Java and Maluku.
Japan occupied Bali during World War II during which time a Balinese military officer, Gusti Ngurah Rai, formed a Balinese 'freedom army'. Following Japan's Pacific surrender in August 1945, the Dutch promptly returned to Indonesia, including Bali, immediately to reinstate their pre-war colonial administration. This was resisted by the Balinese rebels now using Japanese weapons.
20 November 1946, the Battle of Marga was fought in Tabanan in central Bali. Colonel I Gusti Ngurah Rai, 29 years old, finally rallied his forces in east Bali at Marga Rana, where they made a suicide attack on the heavily armed Dutch. The Balinese battalion was entirely wiped out, breaking the last thread of Balinese military resistance.
In 1946 the Dutch constituted Bali as one of the 13 administrative districts of the newly-proclaimed Republic of East Indonesia, a rival state to the Republic of Indonesia which was proclaimed and headed by Sukarno and Hatta. Bali was included in the "Republic of the United States of Indonesia" when the Netherlands recognised Indonesian independence on 29 December 1949. In 1950 Bali officially renounced the Dutch union and legally became a province within the Republic of Indonesia.
Bali was particularly hard hit during the nationwide purge of Communists in 1965; more than 40,000 people were killed, and entire villages were destroyed. The island was part of a massive transmigration project in the late 1970s to relieve overcrowding.
On October 12, 2002, a car bomb attack in the tourist resort of Kuta killed 202 people, largely foreign tourists and injured a further 209. Further bombings occurred three years later in Kuta and nearby Jimbaran Bay.
Source: MSN Encarta, The Columbia Encyclopedia 6th Edition, Encyclopedia Britannia Online, Wikipedia and Wikitravel.
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