Balinese King - Erlangga

Soekarno was proclaimed the first President of the Republic. A man with a dynamic public image, he endeavoured to run the Republic as a 'guided democracy' always seeking political solutions to the many problems and ignoring the economic reconstruction necessary to lift the country out of the impoverished state it had fallen into by being cut off from international trade during the war. The economic situation deteriorated still further as severe inflation set in, until finally on i October, 1865 a communist effort to overthrow the army command and take over the country proved unsuccessful. General Suharto, head of the army's strategic reserve, took strong counter action and by the same evening was in control of the situation. Soekarno was clearly seen to be in sympathy with the abortive coup, and was replaced as President by Suharto, although this was not proclaimed officially until some two years after Soekarno was stripped of his powers. Since that time the government of Suharto has made strenuous efforts to correct the Republic's economic dilliculties. and present indications are that a reasonable degree of stability has been achieved.
The history of Bali itself is obscure until the beginning of the eleventh century, but since that time it has been bound
tip with that of Java in the first place and the Indonesian Republic in the second. In 991 A.D. a prince named Erlangga was born of a Balinese king and a Javanese princess. I le later went to Java. married a princess from Srividjaya, and succeeded to the throne of Kahuripan, one of the kingdoms of central Java, which he ruled for thirty years while his brother, Anak Wungsu, ruled in Bali in his name. 'thus a link was forged between Java and Bali at that time and Erlangga became one of the most famous of Balinese mythical figures.
Later Bali became independent of Java but was again subjugated by the king of Singasari in 1284. When Singasari was absorbed into the Madjapahit dynasty, Bali again became free only to return to the vassaldom of \fadjapahit in 1593. The Balinese continued to revolt against their subordination to Madjapahit, but these revolts were put down, the final defeat being by Gadja Dfada the supreme general and prime minister of Madjapahit, to whom the Balinese aristocracy ascribes its origin.
With the advance of Islam and the decline and final destruction of the empire of Dfadjapahit early in the sixteenth century, Bali as its remaining dependence, became the refuge of the Prince and his court, the priests, artists and scholars of Madjapahit. The Prince proclaimed himself King of Bali and Radja of Klungkung. He it was who divided the island into eight principalities which he gave to his relatives and generals to govern. These later became the smaller kingdoms of Bathing, Tabanan, Bangli, Gianjar, Klungkung, Karangasem, Bulcleng and Djenlbrana, each with its own Radja, into which Bali became divided and which today are still divisions for local government.
This movement was of immense significance to the development of Bali. The grafting of the culture of the cream of the intellectuals of the most civilised people of the East Indies to the simple animism of the Balinese has produced one of the most colourful, interesting and artistic civilisations that could be encountered. The art and the philosophy of the Hindu-Javanese have been preserved in the art and philosophy of the Hindu-Balinese, and have indeed flourished in that atmosphere.
The Dutch first visited the island of Bali by ship in 1597 and were enchanted with the island. Their reports in Holland on their return attracted Dutch traders and the Dutch Fast India Company to the island in succeeding years. The Balinese princes were friendly but remained aloof. While recognising the authority of the Dutch, they retained their own individual autonomy in their own principalities.