On Sep 20, 1906, Dutch armed forces launched their final offensive against the remaining independent kingdoms of South Bali. By late afternoon the royal families of both of Badung's ruling houses--the senior house, Pun Denpasar, led by Cokorda Ngurah Made Pamecutan, and Puri Pamecutan, under the leadership of the ailing Cokorda Agung Pamecutan--had been annihilated. Creese talks about a ceremonial ritual of death known as puputan, "or ending," where the rulers--who are dressed in ceremonial white and brandishing their kris--together with hundreds of their followers walked directly into the Dutch fire and fell in a hail of bullets.
In this article, Helen Creese introduces and translates the narrative of a female puputan survivor and witness. The story, reframed by one of the narrator’s descendants, was published in the Bali Post in 1977.
Indonesia 2006
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