Bali holiday, what an idea to visit this exotic wonderland. But lets take a look at what is there, Bali is an Indonesian island located at the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. It is one of the country's 33 provinces with the provincial capital at Denpasar towards the south of the island. With a population recorded as 3,151,000 in 2005, the island is home to the vast majority of Indonesia's small Hindu minority. 93.18% of Bali's population adheres to Balinese Hinduism, while most of the remainder follow Islam. It is also the largest tourist destination in the country and is renowned for its highly developed arts, including dance, sculpture, painting, leather, metalworking and music. Bali was inhabited by Austronesian peoples by about 2,000 BCE 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 Philippines, 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 Chinese, and particularly Hindu 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. 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 Java to Bali in the 15th century.
The first European contact with Bali is thought to have been made by Dutch explorer Cornelis de Houtman who arrived in 1597, though a Portuguese ship had foundered off the Bukit Peninsula as early as 1585.[citation needed] Dutch colonial control was expanded across the Indonesian archipelago in the nineteenth century (see Dutch East Indies). Their political and economic control over Bali began in the 1840s on the island's north coast by playing various distrustful Balinese realms against each other.[5] In the late 1890s, struggles between Balinese kingdoms in the island's south were exploited by the Dutch to increase their control. The Dutch mounted large naval and ground assaults at the Sanur region in 1906 and were met by the thousands of members of the royal family and their followers who marched to certain death against superior Dutch force in a suicidal puputan defensive assault rather than face the humiliation of surrender.[5] Despite Dutch demands for surrender, an estimated 4,000 Balinese marched to their death against the invaders. In 1908, a similar massacre occurred in the face of a Dutch assault in Klungkung. Afterwards the Dutch governors were able to exercise little influence over the island, and local control over religion and culture generally remained intact.
Dutch rule over Bali had come later and was never as well established as in other parts of Indonesia such as Java and Maluku. Imperial Japan occupied Bali during World War II during which time a Balinese military officer, Gusti Ngurah Rai, formed a Balinese 'freedom army'. In the 1930s, anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, and artists Miguel Covarrubias and Walter Spies, and musicologist Colin McPhee created a western image of Bali as "an enchanted land of aesthetes at peace with themselves and nature", and western tourism first developed on the island. 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. On 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.
The 1963 eruption of Mount Agung killed thousands,
created economic havoc and forced many displaced Balinese to be transmigrated
to other parts of Indonesia. Mirroring the widening of social divisions across
Indonesia in the 1950s and early 1960s, Bali saw conflict between supporters of
the traditional caste system, and those rejecting these traditional values. Politically,
this was represented by opposing supporters of the Indonesian Communist Party
(PKI) and the Indonesian Nationalist Party (PNI), with tensions and ill-feeling
further increased by the PKI's land reform programs. An attempted coup in Jakarta
was put down by forces led by General Suharto. The army became the dominant power
as it instigated a violent anti-communist purge, in which the army blamed the
PKI for the coup. Most estimates suggest that at least 500,000 people were killed
across Indonesia, with an estimated 80,000 killed in Bali, equivalent to 5 per
cent of the island's population. With no Islamic forces involved as in Java and
Sumatra, upper-caste PNI landlords lead the extermination of PKI members.
As
a result of the 1965/66 upheavals, Suharto was able to manoeuvre Sukarno out of
the presidency, and his "New Order" government reestablished relations
with western countries. The Bali as a tourist paradise which was instigated during
the pre World War II colonial time was revised in a modern form, and the resulting
large growth in tourism has led to Balinese standards of living rise dramatically
and significant foreign exchange earned for the country. A bombing in 2002 by
militant Islamists in the tourist area of Kuta killed 202 people, mostly foreigners.
This attack, and another in 2005, severely affected tourism, bringing much economic
hardship to the island. ali is renowned for its diverse and sophisticated art
forms, such as painting, sculpture, woodcarving, handcrafts, and performing arts.
Balinese percussion orchestra music, known as gamelan, is highly developed and
varied. Balinese dances portray stories from Hindu epics such as the Ramayana
but with heavy Balinese influence. Famous Balinese dances include pendet, legong,
baris, topeng, barong, and kecak (the monkey dance).
The Hindu New Year, Nyepi, is celebrated in the spring by a day of silence. On this day everyone stays at home and tourists are encouraged to remain in their hotels. On the preceding day large, colorful sculptures of ogoh-ogoh monsters are paraded and finally burned in the evening to drive away evil spirits. Other festivals throughout the year are specified by the Balinese pawukon calendrical system.
National education programs, mass media and tourism continue to change Balinese culture. Immigration from other parts of Indonesia, especially Java, is changing the ethnic composition of Bali's population.
The Balinese eat with their right hand, as the left is impure, a common belief throughout Indonesia. The Balinese do not hand or receive things with their left hand and would not wave at anyone with their left hand.
Find a Villa from Across Europe
Grand World Villas - Find a Villa from anywhere in the world
Grand Global Villas - Find Villas from Around the Globe
An Index with links to almost all our sites.
Holiday
to - Great places to go on Holiday to
Holiday
to 2 - More Great places to go on Holiday to
Holiday
to 3 - More places to go on Holiday to
Even More Holidays & Vacations
Baloi Holiday Balli Holiday Bali Holliday Ballli Holiday Bai Holiday Balie Holiday Bale Holiday Balleti Holiday Ballet Holiday Balei Holiday Balie Holiday Baliy Holiday Baly Holiday Bally Holiday Bali Holliday Bali Holiday Bjali Holiday Bhali Holiday Baki Holiday Bhhali Holiday Bahli Holiday Bahhli Holiday Bali Holidaey Bali Holidayy Bali Holidday Baahli Holiday Bahhli Holiday Baahi Holiday Balai Holiday Bali Indonesia Holiday Bali Holidays Bali Vacations Bali Holiday Baki Holiday BaliholidayBaliholidayBalisholiday Balis Holiday Bali Holidays Bali Hkolidays Bali Hokidays Balii Holidaty Hali Holidaty Bali Holidaty Bali Holliday Vali Holiday Nali Holiday Hali Holiday Baliholidays Bali Holiaying Bali Holiday Bali holidays Balli Holidays Bali Holiday
Vacations
-More Vacation Locations
Bali Holiday
Find some Cottages in Britain or Ireland & the world
A site stating what have been the world's largest empires ever
Find a Cottage in Britain or Ireland
Find more Cottages in Britain, Ireland, the USA, Canada or the world
Cottages in Spain and Holiday Homes
More pages on Financial Affairs
Banks - A page on Financial Affairs
Banks 2 - A page on Financial Affairs
The
History Lounge - A place with
100s of Historical articles.