Puputan (sometimes spelled “pupputan”) is a Balinese term fora ritualistic collective suicide 1 preferred to the humiliation of a surrender. Themost memorable puppets were organized during the submission of the Balinese by theDutch in 1906 and 1908 .
Puputan from 1849 to Buleleng
The raja of Buleleng committed suicide with four hundred of his suite in 1849 in a puputan against the Dutch 2 .
1906 Puputan Badung to
The , a large detachment of the Royal Netherlands Indies Army disembarks without significant resistance on the beach of Sanur in Bali and walks on Denpasar . They pass through a seemingly deserted city and notice the rising smoke of the puri (the palace) approaching the royal palace and, even more disturbing, hear the drumbeats of drums coming from inside the walls of the palace. When they reach the palace, a silent procession emerges, led by raja perched on a sedan chair raised by four men. The raja is dressed in the traditional white clothes of the ceremonies ofcremation , wears beautiful jewelry and is armed with the sacred kriss . The officers, the guards, the priests, the wives, the children and the servants also come in funeral ceremonial robes.
Arrived at a hundred paces of the Dutch soldiers, the procession stops, the raja descends from his palanquin and beckons to a priest who plunges his dagger into the bosom of the prince. The other people in the procession begin to kill each other. The Dutch pretended an attack with lance and javelin to open fire with rifles and artillery. The women ironically throw jewels and gold coins at the soldiers. More and more people coming out of the palace, piles of corpses rise higher and it is nearly a thousand Balinese who die thus 3 . The soldiers strip the bodies of valuables and sack what remains of the ruins of the burnt palace.
1908 Puputan Klungkung to
Another puputan takes place onthe Palace of Klungkung (in) at which the suicide Dewa Agung (in) leg and two hundred of his suite.
Puputan from 1946 at the Battle of Marga
During the war of independence, I Gusti Ngurah Rai organizes a last puppan against the Dutch army at the Battle of Marga in 1946, in which ninety-eight soldiers die with him.
Bibliography
- Robert Pringle , Bali: Indonesia’s Hindu Realm; A short history of Allen & Unwin, coll. “Short History of Asia Series”, [ publishing detail ] ( ISBN 9781865088631 )
- ( In ) Debbie Guthrie Haer , Juliette Morillot and Irene Toh , Bali, a traveler’s companion , Singapore, Editions Didier Millet,, 3 e ed. [ Edition detail ] ( ISBN 978-981-4217-35-4 , OCLC 190787094 , LCCN 2008339714 )
Notes and references
- ↑ Pringle, 2004, p. 106 .
- ↑ The Diary 1849
- ↑ Haer, Morillot, Toh, 2001, p. 38
( In ) This article is partially or entirely from the Wikipedia article in English entitled ” Puputan ” ( see the list of authors ) .