Like a lot of women my age I have been entranced by Bali since South Pacific. We've been here 2 days.Yesterday we just lounged round the pool and went to the perfect beach restaurant for fish at high tide and watched the surf. Today we were a little more adventurous and went into Depensor to the Bali Museum..
It sits on the site of the old Palace. Bali did quite well at avoiding colonisation. It was a Buddhist country until the 11C when it first got an influx of Hindu and Javanese cultures and was under Javanese control from the 13C. As java became moslem Bali remained and the Majapahit empire collapsed Bali flourished and had its Golden Age controlling much of East JavaIt wasn't until 1906 that the Dutch who had be advancing across Java turned their attention to Bali. On September 20th the Rajah of Bandung marched out of the Palace Gates to face the invading Dutch. Followed by betweeen 600 and 2000 (nobody was counting) men women and children dressed all in holy white robes and each carrying a golden kris dagger they proceeded to a mass suicide or putupan rather than submit to the invaders. The Dutch shot down anyone who was a bit slow and then razed the Palace. It was rebuilt as the Governor's Residence and the museum in mock Palace/Temple style built.
It was Saturday so there were wedding couples having their photos taken. It is apparently a common thing for couple from the whole of East Bali, but they were not getting married today, next Saturday is the propitious day for marriages. The photos taken today will be given to guests at the wedding.
The Balinese keep their own style of Buddhaesque Hinduism and many of the exhibits were of statues and drawings of the Gods together with masks and costumes for festival dances and shadow puppets. There were also fine examples of the various textiles from the island woodcarvings.
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