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Bruce Carpenter raises the profile of some of Bali's lesser known heroes and heroines.

Tourist propaganda has little time for nuance, detail or accuracy. Romantic myths are a crucial element in promoting tourist destinations like Bali. Marketing combines the allure of the tropical paradise with an ancient and mysterious Eastern culture. Shangri-La meets Polynesia! To make this formula work, romantic heroes are essential. Luckily, Bali has a long list to choose from though many have been subjected to a de facto censorship that Stalin would have been proud of. Only those, who like Hollywood movie stars, have demonstrated broad appeal are lionized for the passengers of those creepy giant tour buses that regularly clog  the roads when you are trying to get some where in a rush.

The penultimate hero of Balinese Tourist Myth is Walter Spies. He had a head start on his rivals already in the 1930s when he was friend and guide to the rich and famous and the most sought after expatriate in Bali. His qualifications - good looks, flamboyant personality, artistic talents, scholarly rigours and an inherent sense of self-promotion - were so prodigious that the mainstream chose to overlook the fact that he was gay.

This article, however, seeks not to examine Spies's rise to the supreme godhead (see Wijaya Words' brilliant analysis of this phenomenon in their 1995 publication Balinese Tourist Myths, Legends and Propaganda) but rather to introduce curious readers to some of the unknown heroes that populate the halls of the forgotten here in this "Motorcity of the Gods".

King Watu Renggong

When Cornelius Houtman, a ratbag Dutch captain who allegedly poisoned his superior on the first voyage from Europe to Bali, anchored off the coast of Klungkung in 1598, all of Bali was ruled by a glorious monarch, the Maharaja Watu Renggong. The King of Baly (sic.), as the Dutch reported, cut a striking figure who would regularly ride around his kingdom on a finely decorated carriage pulled by rare albino water buffaloes. His taste for the unusual also consisted of a retinue of some fifty dwarfs and misshapen midgets richly dressed and chosen because of their resemblance to Balinese kris handles, which he also collected. 

Houtman was so paranoid after being attacked in Java that he actually never disembarked for fear of being murdered by the natives and therefore never actually met the king preferring to hide himself in his cabin drinking gin. His officers and crewmembers that did were wined and dined by a man of great grace and charm who listened to their tales with polite curiosity. Considering their sorry state after suffering a voyage of a year sprinkled with unending intrigue, horrendous disease, starvation and regular attacks they could not have been very impressive to the Raja of all Bali. The fastidiously clean Balinese must have been appalled by the stench of rancid butter and sweat that soaked their shoddy velvet jackets infested with vermin. Good hosts immaculately trained in fine etiquette, the Balinese refrained from making any rude remarks about these strange men who obviously rarely bathed. Even when they began ranting about the greatness and wealth of their own mighty king and kingdom nobody took offence. These were obviously daft, homeless wanderers who believed their own delusions!

As for the Dutch they were astounded by the King Watu's wealth and hospitality. "No king in Europe has more gold plate," they noted with greedy eyes. The ship's log was full of praise of the wealth and prosperity of the island. For the first time in a year they ate well. The first visit ended with the Dutch naming Bali "New Holland" and declaring eternal friendship. Just before weighing anchor someone noticed that two Dutch sailors who had taken a special liking to Bali had failed to board - the first expatriates to settle on the island. It was a good thing too. Of the more than 700 sailors who sailed just over 200 ever returned home.

The reign of Watu Renggong was long and peaceful and by many standards Bali's Golden Age. He died peacefully but soon afterwards an ambitious prime minister who manipulated and then deposed Watu's heir usurped his kingdom. Since then, Bali has never again be reunited under a single Balinese king. Instead a bloody era of internecine warfare between numerous local lords ensued until the Dutch conquered the island in 1906-8. Watu Renggong was the last lord of a strong and independent Bali whose domain stretched beyond Bali's shores to Java, Lombok and Sumbawa. One of his most famous statements was made when the newly converted Islamic ruler of the feared Buginese in Sulawesi threatened to invade. "We will welcome you," he declared, "with 10,000 Balinese spears greased with pig fat." Too bad he wasn't around when the carpetbaggers arrived.

General Gusti Djelantik

The fighting was so vicious and retreat so hasty that many of the Dutch killed their own wounded soldiers to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Balinese who had a horrendous reputation as warriors and barbarians before they were transformed by tourist literature into peaceful, loving natives.

Until the 19th century the Dutch ignored Bali because far more money was to be had on the other islands. The first real trouble came in north Bali in the 1840s, when the locals exercised an old traditional right known as tawang karang (a Balinese version of finders keepers, losers weepers) and seized the cargo of several stranded ships. This right was not well appreciated by the Dutch who like all nations with a mercantile navy, saw this as little more than piracy. They protested, but the raja of Buleleng Kingdom in the north  was little moved. Unfortunately for him, onehis ancestors had, like all of the Balinese kingdoms, been tricked into signing a treaty that made tawang karang illegal. Referring to the treaty, the Dutch demanded reimbursement. The raja thought they had really gone mad and refused. A few months later a colonial force landed and occupied his capital without any resistance. The Dutch thought they had won when the raja, bored camping so far from his palace, finally agreed to put a halt to tawang karang, reimburse the value of the cargo and pay a war indemnity. Within days the troops left him alone.

But the raja quickly forgot about them and the payments. The colonial authorities were livid and sent another more ambitious expeditionary force. Once again the raja left town. This time, however, the troops did not only occupy the capital but set out to engage the Balinese on their own territory. They were well organized and did not expect much of a fight, but due to the brilliant leadership skills of Balinese general, Gusti Djelantik, the Dutch Were proven wrong. Djelantik had built a well-defended fortress in Jagaraga in the hills above the town. He had his troops feign a disorganized retreat after a skirmish. The over-confident colonial troops followed in hot pursuit, climbing up winding paths as the vegetation grew denser and denser. Tired and running out of water and ammunition, they were ambushed by the Balinese who executed a well-planned attack. The fighting was so vicious and retreat so hasty that many of the Dutch killed their own wounded soldiers to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Balinese who had a horrendous reputation as warriors and barbarians - before they were transformed by tourist literature into peaceful, loving natives.

This was the first time in more than a hundred years that the Dutch had been so soundly defeated in the Dutch East Indies. The Balinese victory proved a temporary respite. Fearful of repercussions throughout the archipelago, a large force was mounted to leave no chance for defeat. Tragically Gusti Djelantik never had the chance to defend Bali's freedom again. Rumor has it that fellow Balinese princes, jealous of his increasing power, poisoned him. The Dutch annexed north Bali and would have probably taken Karangasem and Klungkung shortly afterwards. This was prevented by a bad case of dysentery, which dispirited their troops, the death of their general who was killed by a stray bullet in a battle near Goa Lawah and the mediation of that famous Danish trader, Mads Lange.

Mads Lange

Mads Lange came to the East as a cabin boy in the 1830s but went on to command his own ship. He first managed to accumulate a great fortune in Lombok where he became close to the most powerful Balinese monarch there (who, incidentally, is said to have had an incestuous relationship with his sister). Rice was cheap in Lombok, and several traders, including an Englishman by the name of George King also; like Lange, established a profitable trade in that and other commodities, which they sold in the booming port of Singapore. 

Mads looked set for life when the Raja and his sister asked him to help them put down an insurrection among their vassals. At first impression it looked like a minor rumble but the general dissatisfaction with Mads' patron and the support of George King for his enemies ended with Mads being lucky to flee Lombok with a pair of trousers and his ship. His next port of destination was the malarial swamp of Kuta Beach and its ragbag collection of fisherman and pirates. Landing with panache he rode to the Raja of Badung on a beautiful white horse bearing gifts. An immediate friendship was struck and Mads was given the right to build a fortified ware house in Kuta. Prosperity ensued for Lange, and his home became a meeting place for all 10 sorts of interesting personalities including the drunken German Sanskrit scholar Frederich, who engaged in debates with high priests and princes while sipping The Dane's extensive supply of liquors, a favorite of the Balinese who were also the most prodigious opium smokers in the Indonesian archipelago.

Good hosts immaculately trained in fine etiquette, the Balinese refrained from making any rude remarks about these strange men who obviously rarely bathed. Even when they began ranting about the greatness and wealth of their own mighty king and kingdom nobody took offenoe' these were obviously deft, homeless wanderers who believed their own delusions! 

At first the Dutch were very suspicious about Lange, but he served them well on several occasions acting as a mediator as he had in Lombok. By the 1860s the rice trade was no longer viable and Mads' interprises were not doing so well. He had two wives; one Balinese and one Chinese. He planned to return to Denmark but would pass away before he was able to go home. He was buried in a Chinese cemetery in Kuta. The Danish government pays to maintain his grave since the 1930s. There was once a tower on one of Kuta's back streets, all that remained of a coconut oil factory he built. It has since been knocked down and is now a massage parlor and karaoke lounge. Neubronner van der Tuuk

Half Malay, van der Tuuk was born in the port of Malacca in the first half of the 19th century, when it was still ruled by the Dutch. A brilliant scholar, he was hired by missionaries to travel to Sumatra and live among the feared Batak on Lake Samosir. Though anti-Christian or at least anti-missionary, a job was a job and did what he was asked to do - to compose the first dictionary of the Batak language. He was also fascinated by the local arts and collected everything from old books to Batak magic staffs, which can still be seen in several Dutch museums. In the 1850s the missionaries sent Van der Tuuk to Bali where he settled in Buleleng on the north coast just after the Dutch annexed it. A large imposing figure, van der Tuuk was a total eccentric who delighted in his new home. Despite the existence of very strict laws against dressing like a native he refused to wear trousers, preferring a |sarong. If it was hot he never wore any shirt. Another |might have been punished but his intellectual talents were so prodigious that the authorities and the missionaries left him alone as he wrote the first Balinese dictionary and studied the language.

To do this he made a survey of all the traditional Balinese written texts written on palm leaf manuscripts known as usada. He gathered a large number of these that remains the core of the famous collection housed in the Gedung Kertya in Buleleng that was originally named after van deer Took and his successor Liefrinck. Own I Incidentally it was here that the father of Indonesia's first president, Sukarno, worked and met Sukarno's mother a Balinese woman from the Brahmana caste. 

Van der Tuuk was also great friend with many of the local artists. Again, many of the earliest works of art from Bali in European museums came from van der Tuuk. A cantankerous old man at the end of his life, he would wander the beach dressed only in a sarong holding a cane with a large bulbous end. More than one person who irritated him got a bump on the head.

Ni Sadri and Ni Cawan

Sadri and Cawan were the star Legong dancers of the Kedaton dance troupe in Denpasar who performed in front of the Bali Hotel every Friday night in the 1930s. Their beauty and talent charmed thousands of guests and helped make Balinese dance famous. Chances are, when you see photos of Legong dancers from the era that you are seeing Sadri and Cawan.

Cawan was Sadri's adopted sister and they grew up with each other. Their gift as dancers was recognized early and the regul performances at the Bali Hotel set the star: card for Balinese tourist dancers which Wok bits and pieces out of much longer, traditional dances and presented them to the Western audiences in digestable bite size pieces. Both also entertained a long line of Western suitors, most of whom were artists. Thes5e included Willem Hofker, who perhaps painted the most beautiful portraits of the pair. In one we see a relaxed Sadri with her melancholy eyes standing full dance costume with a fan in her hand. Cawan's was a beauty of an altogether different sort with her classical moon like round face. Emilio Ambron, Arthur Fleischmann, Locatelli and many more also painted portraits. 

An amusing story told by Ambron recalls a confrontation he faced with Maria Hofker over Cawan. Unbeknownst to him, Cawan's family decided that there was a good chance that they could marry her to Emilio in the image of Ni Polok's marriage to the Belgium painter Le Mayeur. Previously she had been posing for Hofker but because of this new plan and Ambron's generosity she had refused to sit for Hofker any longer. Mrs. HofLer was very upset because Ambron's sudden entrance had prevented Willem from finishing his portrait. Gracious, Ambron agreed to share Cawan. It is interesting to note that more than fifty years after living on Bali in the 1930s, Ambron was till making sculptures of Balinese dancers entitled Cawan.

Tragically, the Japanese invasion and the Indonesian struggle for independence ended Cawan's and Sadri's brief encounter with world fame. Indeed, the careers of Legong dancers are never long anyway. Cawan died young for unknown reasons. Sadri passed away only a few years ago crippled by arthritis. While portraits of her and her sister sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars Sadri would died poor and forgotten.