BALI GUIDE

BALI HISTORY

At that time, an honored Balinese concept of ship salvage eventually provided the catalyst for the Dutch military intervention. In accordance to the Balinese Principle of Reef Rights [Hukum Tawan Karang], honoring the sea deity Batara Baruna, the Rajas accepted as a gift from the gods whatever ship came to grief on the treacherous reefs which surrounded and ringed their island (bali in indonesia). They took the ship, the cargo, the crew and the passengers as their personal property, naturally sharing which those who actually perform the act of salvage or rescue, but entertaining no doubts at all regarding the sanctity of the deed. From the Dutch point of view, it was bad enough if the Balinese exercised their so-called Reef Rights upon Chinese, Arab, Bugis [a tribe from the island of Sulawesi], or Javanese crafts, many of which sailed under the Dutch flag and expected the Dutch's protection (bali indonesia vacations). It was quite intolerable if the ship was Dutch owned and operated. By the end of 1830, all circumstances combined to prompt the Dutch to address themselves quite earnestly to discussions with the Balinese kings on the delicate subjests of trade and politics, slavery and plunder. They tried to blanket these various topics with treaties of friendship and commerce, in fact, recognition of Dutch sovereignity and monopoly.

A famous Dutch colonial official, known as a "contractsluiter" or contract-maker, H.J. van Huskus Koopman, was dispatched to the islang to try to coax the kings, into giving the Dutch virtual sovereignty over the island. His efforts met with little success. The Dutch finally decided to resort to force. As a pretext for invasion, they used the wreck of the Dutch frigate "Overijssel" on the Kuta reef and the plunder of its cargo by Balinese exercising their Reef Rights. The misfortunate saga of the Overijssel began on July 19, 1841, when the vessel, on its maiden voyage from Plymouth to Surabaya with a valuable cargo of machinery, hit the Kuta reef and was promptly plundered. Subsequent Dutch outrage served in part to cloack humiliation that a large and heavily armed frigate was wrecked by reason of a flagrant navigational error.

The Captain had mistaken the coast of Bali for Java. The Dutch were equally embarrased that the ship was looted despite the presumed vigilance of the ship's company against exactly they contigency. As the furor over the incident increased in Holland, a Dutch mission was sent to Bali to protest continuing outrages and demand reconfirmation of earlier promises that the Balinese would give up the practice of salvaging ships the foundered off their shores. A new Dutch commissioner for Bali arrived with a new set of agreements scheduled to be formally ratified by the Kings and rigidly enforced by the Dutch. He landed at Buleleng [North Bali, now known as part of the Singaraja Regency], to meet with its King and council of the state. It was on this occasion that the great hero of mid 19th century Bali identified himself. He was Gusti Ketut Jelantik, a dramatic, dynamic young Prince, the brother of the kings of Buleleng and Karangasem (bali temple). He defied the Dutch commissioner in the following apocryphal words: "NEVER, while I live, shall the state recognize the sovereignty of the Netherlands in the sense in which you interpret it. After my death, the King may do as he chooses. NOT by a mere scrap of paper shall any man become the master of another's lands. Rather let the Kris decide"