The Dutch found excuses to take on these kingdoms in a series of diplomatic incidents involving shipwrecks and the opium trade. These culminated in the infamous puputans or massacres of 1906 and 1908 that resulted in not only many deaths, but complete Dutch mastery over the island. In the 1906 puputan, the Dutch landed at Sanur and marched on Denpasar, where they were greeted by over a thousand members of the royal family and their followers, dressed in white and carrying the state regalia in a march to certain death before the superior Dutch weaponry. As later expressed by the neighboring king of Tabanan, the attitude of the unrelenting Balinese ruler of Badung, when asked to sign a treaty with the Dutch, was that "it is better that we die with the earth as our pillow than to live like a corpse in shame and disgrace."
Friday, March 6, 2009
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