December/January, 1998
No. 032/VI/97
cover story
Christians in
Paradise
How Christianity came
to Bali
Once Upon a
New Years Eve
MC-ing a New Year's
Eve party during a
blackout
bali focus:
nusa dua and
jimbaran
A fable
People of a
Fertile Sea
The fishers of
Jimbaran beach
Center Stage
Steve Charles revamps
the Candraloka
Amphitheatre
Nusa Dua Nights
How to survive them
The Sacred
Wilderness
Colonial encounters with
Bali's southern peninsula
arts and
culture
Latter Day
Laksamana
A.A.M. Djelantik's
recently launched
autobiography
Kulkul
new Fiction by Gde
Aryantha Soethama
The Rat Pack
Who are Bali's literati?
beyond
bali
An Eddy in The
Counter of Time
Kayaking off the west
coast of Lombok
Slick and Cool in
Sengigi
Round midnight at the
famed Lombok resort
regular
Fashion
Adventure
Into the blue
Food
Jewel of the southren rim
Jungle Drums
Bali Update
On the Road
Home Grown
Made Adi Putra
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THE ORIGINS OF NUSA DUA OR THE REAL REASON BEHIND THE DUTCH COLONIZATION OF INDONESIA
Once upon a
time, in the village of Blahbatuh, there lived a peasant couple called Men Bekung and Pan
Bekung. For many years, they remained childless, hence their name Bekung (childless). But
Men Bekung and Pan Bekung were faithful Hindu followers, so they went to meditate and pray
for a child in the nearby temple of Kutri, the seat of the powerful Durga, the god Siwa's
terrible consort. While they were meditating late a night, suddenly the earth parted and
Durga appeared, asking them: "O, my children, what could you want with me, to disturb
me so with such fervent prayers?" "We desire a child", replied Men
Bekung," One so strong and powerful that he will carry on his shoulder the whole fame
of Balidwipa (the island of Bali)". "It will be as you wish", conceded the
terrible goddess, "but Bali's fame will be Bali's suffering".
A few months later, it become obvious that Men Bekung was pregnant. Birth was difficult, and It took no less than the teeth of the barong to sever the umbilical cord. The child, already a big baby at birth, grew up into a giant. Hence he was named Kebo Truno (kebo = bull, truno = young man). He was extremely voracious and soon ate up all his parent's rice and wealth. At their wits end, they sent him away, and he took to the road, wandering from village to village, begging for his daily cartload of rice. As he went on his way, villagers gave him work to pay for his food, and so, with his nails, he dug out temples, canals and, river beds for them. Thus he shaped the beauty of Bali.
One day, Kebo Truno, hearing the far away rumbling of the waves, headed South towards the sea. He reached it near the present-day village of Tuban and immediately plunged headlong into it, frolicking and splashing in the water as he had never done before. Because of his size, he soon whipped up such a tidal wave that the land around him began to erode away. Luckily, an old wrinkled seer, Begawan Breghu, who was meditating at the temple of Uluwatu, caught sight of the scene. He rushed to the shore where the giant was happily splashing in the water and scolded him thus: "O my son, Kebo Truno, you whose strength knows no match in this whole wide world, stop your play this moment. If you continue, Bali will be split into two parts".
Dazzled by the fire glowing in the eyes of the old man, Kebo Truno stopped playing, and Bali thus avoided being divided into two islands. To this day, there remains a thin ribbon of land between the southern Nusa Peninsula to the northern part of the island called the Jimbaran isthmus. The airport is located nearby.
Kebo Truno had already wreaked havoc though. By frolicking in the sea, he had created the Gulf of Benoa. Ashamed of his deed, he went about making repairs. He cut a tree into a giant pole, and with two huge bamboo baskets, he carried limestone from the Bukit (hill), thus reclaiming marsh making up the Gulf. But as he walked along the shore with his load of limestone, he tripped in the water. The boulders he carried in his baskets fell out, creating the two small islands of Nusa Dua (Nusa Dua means two islands), now joined to the mainland by causeways. Awed by their beauty, Kebo Truno decided to leave them there, and returned to his village. On arriving, he discovered he had become very famous, and had been ordered to the court of the king of Bedahulu to be honoured with the title of Chief of Warriors.
Meanwhile in Java, the kingdom of Majapahit was emerging as a new and powerful force. Its chief minister, Gajah Mada, had sworn to unite all Nusantara under the banner of his king. To deal with Bali, and its invincible warrior, the famed Kebo Truno, Gajah Mada devised a ruse. Kebo Truno remained a bachelor. He had tried to court many girls, but was always rejected: he was just too big for their liking. Taking advantage of Kebo Truno's loneliness, Gajah Mada sent him a messenger with these words: "Hail, Kebo Truno, famed warrior, strong builder of canals and temples, your name has reached our shores, and we need you. Our capital is growing, and we need a big and deep water well that only one as big and strong as you is capable of digging. Do it for us and we will give you a girl as pretty as a Balinese cili (effigy of the rice goddess)".
image above:
Kebo Truno shapes Bali's beauty.
Illustration by I Wayan Sundra
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