Product Description
This is a story about the vulnerability — and durability — of an anachronistic system in a chaotically changing modern world. The Balinese-Hindu culture thrived undisturbed for centuries, but modern times threatened to destroy the island’s heritage. This book details the struggle in full.
Bali had many traumatic encounters with the West. Spanning all of Balinese history, it sketches the economics, culture and politics of the island. This book is a must for stu… More >>
Bali Chronicles: A Lively Account of the Island’s History from Early Times to the 1970′s
Apart from the introductory chapters in Lonely Planet guides there aren’t too many places you can go to for a history of Bali. However I picked this up – somewhat appropriately – at the Periplus book store in Ubud, Bali. And it has to be said that pretty much all the stores on the main street of that town had products well outside the price range of the locals… nothing like a trip to a less fortunate country to put you in your place!
Anyway this book, written by an `old Asia hand’ by the name of Willard A. Hanna sums up the islands history from early times to the 1970′s. As such it is a product of a certain thinking but to tell the truth I don’t find it terribly outdated at all given the affinity for Asia in general that the author seems to have.
The tale of Bali is started off from early times and – given the paucity of material available to the author at the time – quickly moves forward to what would correspond in Europe to the early middle ages. Here we start to realise the ridiculously tangled web of alliances, betrayal, relentless feuding and petty dynastic squabbles but characterised the Balinese and their sometime subjects on nearby Lombok for century after century and the tenuous nature of central authority on the island is borne out in the text. Of course, in hindsight, the end result of such internecine spats and the inability to constitute steady, stable political entities of enough size to be viable in the long term would have only one result when inevitably the culture came into contact with other powers – in this case the Dutch.
The author deals with encroaching Dutch authority without animosity towards either side and with some sadness at the inexorable march of proceedings. Yet the benefits in terms of administrative efficiency provided by Dutch control and the attendant infrastructure benefits such as roads, dams and schools that were made possible by greater internal revenues.
The story becomes less rosy as the decades wear on, one chapter is entitled The Decade of Disaster. Having said that the authors desire to see Balinese culture, which he obviously adores, be spared the impact of tourism. Which is, of course, at cross purposes with long term economic growth which begets social and infrastructure growth (schools, hospitals etc). For me this was the part of the book most difficult to assimilate with my own experiences and beliefs but as a firm believer that sometimes it’s good to be exposed to different points of view than your own I managed to cruise through this section happily enough.
Lastly it should be noted that as the book only covers up to the 1970′s it won’t take up you through the tourism explosion of the 80′s and 90′s, the transmigrasi social policy of the Indonesian government nor the bombing scenarios that played out in the 00′s. I feel that the authors thoughts on these issues would be quite interesting.
All up I found this a good book on Bali and its history, equipped with a number of pertinent photos, sympathetic coverage and an interesting introduction thrown into the mix written by one Adrian Vickers of Wollongong University.
Rating: 4 / 5