In Bali, an Indonesian empire that double-crossed the Chinese hides in plain sight
- Vestiges of the Majapahit empire, Indonesia’s largest ever, are evident across Bali, from the ubiquitous meru towers to cultural traditions such as gamelan
- A new luxury resort, the Jumeirah Bali, was built in honour of this remarkable history, with gardens, water features and pavilions based on the Majapahit era
My guide, Made, leads me down a stone alleyway, past stalls laden with traditional souvenirs such as keris daggers, wayang kulit shadow puppets and batik fabrics. Although Bali’s tourism industry is recovering from the pandemic, there are few customers.
At the end of the alley is the Besakih Temple, where we encounter a group of men wearing bright sarongs and knotted udeng headwear. Their expressions are stern.
Made has been doubling as my driver and guide to Bali but now he peels away, telling me there will be “trouble” if he accompanies me inside what is the island’s largest religious complex: 23 Hindu temples sprawling across Mount Agung, in the island’s east.
The stern-looking men are rival guides, residents of Besakih village, and are fiercely territorial, Made says.
Although Besakih is the island’s mother temple, where each of Bali’s caste groups come to pray, the locals believe this site is their inherited property and see “outsider” guides as taking money out of their pockets.
Over the past millennium, many battles have been waged across Bali and, by extension, its revered Besakih Temple. This disagreement over tourism revenue is just the latest.
