Contexts - The Rough Guide to Bali and Lombok - page 448

HISTORY
Bali and Lombok, two tiny islands, have been buffeted by powerful empires throughout
history, and their fortunes have often been tied to those of their larger neighbours, Java
and Sumbawa. More recently they have been subsumed in the fate of the vast Indonesi-
an archipelago. Relations between Bali and Lombok have often been turbulent, and the
origins of their present cultural, religious and economic differences are firmly rooted in
past events.
Beginnings
Homo erectus , a distant ancestor of modern man, arrived in Indonesia around half a million
years ago during the ice ages . At this time glaciers advanced from the polar regions and the
levels of the oceans fell, exposing land bridges between the islands and the land masses
of Southeast Asia and Australia. Homo erectus moved across these land bridges into and
through Indonesia. The fossilized bones of “Java Man” from this period were found in Cent-
ral Java and stone axes and adzes have been discovered on Bali.
Homo sapiens appeared around forty thousand years ago and were cave-dwelling hunter-
gatherers whose rock paintings have been found in the far east of the archipelago. The Neo-
lithic era, around 3000 BC, is marked by the appearance of more sophisticated stone tools,
agricultural techniques and basic pottery. Remains from this period have been found at Cekik,
in the far west of Bali.
From the seventh or eighth centuries BC, the Bronze Age spread south from southern Ch-
ina. The Indonesian archipelago is famous for bronze casting; decorated drums have been
found throughout the area. Bali's most famous example, and the largest drum found anywhere
in Southeast Asia, is the Moon of Pejeng , nearly 2m long and housed in a temple near Ubud.
Stone sarcophagi from this period are on display in the Bali Museum in Denpasar and the
Museum Arkeologi in Pejeng.
Early traders and empires
From at least 200 BC, trade was a feature of life across the archipelago. The earliest written
records in Bali, metal inscriptions, or prasasti , dating from the ninth century AD, reveal
significant Buddhist and Hindu influence from the Indian subcontinent, shown also by the
statues, bronzes and rock-cut caves at Gunung Kawi and Goa Gajah.
The most famous event in early Balinese history occurred towards the end of the tenth
century when a princess of East Java, Mahendratta , married the Balinese king Udayana .
Their marriage portrait is believed to be depicted in a stone in the Pura Tegeh Koripan near
Kintamani. Their son, Erlangga , born around 991 AD, later brought the two realms together
until his death in 1049.