Singaraja Royal Festival: Bali

By Wombat | August 11th, 2006 | 3 Comments »

Next weekend, Singaraja, the capital of Buleleng regency in northern Bali, will host a three-day royal festival involving local and international artists, scholars and members of the tourist industry.

Anak Agung Ngurah Brawida, chairman of the organizing committee, explained that the festival was aimed at enhancing cultural activities, especially among members of the Puri (Palace) Singaraja in Buleleng regency in northern Bali.

“This is not intended to enliven neo-feudalism, as many people have questioned. It is purely a cultural event.”
Puri Singaraja, he said, has been well-maintained. The palace consists of Puri Raja (king’s pavilion), king’s bedroom and the queen’s compound, water garden and private and open bathrooms.

It also has a court office and library filled with an outstanding collection of ancient lontar (palm leaves) manuscripts, carefully kept by the descendants of the last king of Singaraja, Anak Agung Ngurah Panji Tisna.

The royal family also keeps numerous court and ritual paraphernalia and old and rare pictures of the royal family.
Balinese royals in every region were usually the main patrons for the arts and culture. The planned festival, held from Aug. 12-14, is part of the Bali Recovery Program. This program is designed to reintroduce Singaraja’s cultural heritage to the people, and to draw more visitors to Bali’s ancient port city.

The idea of holding an annual cultural festival emerged two years ago following a renovation project on Puri Agung Singaraja in 2004. “There is no more `real kingdom’ or `king’ in Bali, in terms of power and authority. All we want to do is to preserve our rich culture and traditions and to share them with all the people here,” another member of the organizing committee added.

The fully refurbished palace was opened to the public as one of Singaraja’s tourist destinations, and more importantly as a crucial center of learning.

The palace is located in the city center next to the famous Gedong Kirtya library, home to hundreds of old lontar manuscripts dealing with all aspects of Balinese history, society, politics, rituals, medicine and other subjects.

Established by the king of Buleleng, Ki Gusti Anglurah Pandji Sakti, on March 30, 1604, Puri Agung Singaraja was a symbol of power and was part of the highly intricate architectural heritage of the Den Bukit Kingdom in Buleleng.

During this period, Bali comprised a number of powerful kingdoms, including Klungkung and Karangasem in the east and Buleleng in the north.

Renowned as one of the most powerful kings in Bali, Pandji Sakti, or Ki Barak, overran the Blambangan kingdom in East Java. He was then courted by the king of Mataram in Central Java and was awarded a huge troop of elephants.

Singaraja kingdom experienced its ups and downs. In l846, the palace was bombed by Dutch troops, who destroyed the palace. This was followed by the fierce war of Jagaraga between l847 and l849 with the Dutch.
The kingdom refused to surrender. Led by I Gusti Patih Djelantik, thousands of Singaraja people were involved in the war. However, with less advanced equipment and strategy, Singaraja fell to the Dutch colonial administration in l849.

The ruined palace was renovated in l860 following the rise of I Gusti Ngurah Ketut Djelantik as the king of Buleleng. But 13 years later, the palace was again damaged by another war with the Dutch in l873.

During the Japanese occupation of Bali in the l940s, Japanese troops not only looted every valuable item from the palace, but also took all the iron fences.

The Japanese administration took over part of the palace’s land as its office.

“This our rich history that we want to share with our young people,” Ngurah Brawida said.

The festival, he said, is expected to have a major impact on the development of tourism in northern Bali. “We also expect that it will become a continuing effort to preserve and to promote our cultural assets.”

Alit Kartarahardja