Buddhism in Bali
Venerable
S. Dhammika
Much attention has
been given to how far west Buddhism extended in ancient times. The
most westerly Buddhist monument that can be is the foundations of a
large stupa in the south east corner of the ancient citadel of
Khiva in Turkmenistan. Small communities of Buddhists may have
existed beyond this but if they did they would have been
insignificant, isolated and exceptional. We can say therefor that
the outer edge of Buddhism in the west was what is now eastern
Iran. But how far to the east did Buddhism spread its gentle and
civilizing influence? To the outer islands of Indonesia, to
Australia or perhaps beyond? In the 1920's a superb bronze bust of
the Buddha was found on Sulawesi, one of the larger islands that
make up Indonesia. This is the eastern most point that any Buddhist
antiquity has ever been found. There is, though, no evidence of an
enduring Buddhist presence either on Sulawesi or beyond it; no
ruined temples or monasteries, no inscriptions or references to it
in the historical records. However, only a few hundred miles south
west of Sulawesi is the small island of Bali where archeological,
epigraphically and literary evidence shows that Buddhism existed
along side Hinduism for about seven hundred years.
Indian merchants
first arrived in Bali in about 200 BCE and it was probably these
people who introduced Buddhism and Hinduism. A Balinese work of
uncertain date called the Nagarakrtagama by the Buddhist monk lists
all the Buddhist temples in Bali, twenty six altogether, and
mentions that in 1275 King Kretanagara underwent a Tantric Buddhist
initiation to protect his kingdom from an expected invasion by
Kublai Khan. The island's history is scant until 1343 when it was
conquered by and absorbed into the Majapahit Empire of
Java-Sumatra. Hinduism and Buddhism both received state patronage
although the type of Buddhism that prevailed gradually became
indistinguishable from Hinduism. A Javanese Buddhist work from
about the 12th century contains this telling verse. "The one
substance is called two, that is, the Buddha and Siva. They say
they are different but how can they be divided? Despite differences
there is oneness". Clearly at the time these words were being
composed some Buddhists were struggling to maintain the uniqueness
of the Dhamma while others were stressing its similarity with
Hinduism. Eventually in both Java and Bali the integrators
prevailed. Incidentally, the phrase "Despite differences there is
oneness" ( Bhineka tunggal ika ) has been taken as the motto for
the Republic of Indonesia. With the collapse of Mahapahit in 1515
and the ascendancy of Islam, Java's old intellectual and religious
elite, including the last surviving Buddhist monks and scholars
sought refuge in Bali.
In January 2004 I fulfilled a long-standing wish to visit the
island that Nehru eulogized as "The Morning of the World". I
planned to visit all the sights that other tourists like to see but
my main intention was to search out the traces of Buddhism and find
out something about Bali's small Buddhist community. My first stop
was the Bali Museum in Dempasar, the capital of the island. The
older part of the museum was built in 1910 in the style of a royal
palace and gives some idea of the artistic sophistication of the
traditional Balinese culture. The exhibits on display in the museum
reinforce the impression that the Balinese have an unusually highly
developed aesthetic scene. The paintings, masks, pottery, wood
calving and fabrics are superlative. In one room is a modest
collection of Buddhist antiquities. These consist of clay votive
stupas found at Pedgeng dating from about the 9th century and seals
with the well-known Dhammapariaya on them. There is also a small
collection of bronze images of the Buddha and various bodhisattvas.
The captions on these exhibits gave little information about them
and so I made an appointment to see the curator. He was able to
give details about publications containing some details about the
history of Buddhism in Bali but told me that no comprehensive
account of it has ever been written.
Next I headed for Goa Gajah near Ubud where I had read there were
some traces of Buddhism. Goa Gajah was a sacred spring in ancient
times and locals still come to bathe in its two pools. Water pours
into the pools from pots held by beautifully calved figures of
apsaras. Beyond the spring is a deep mossy and fern filled canyon
with huge boulders strewn around it. The rocks on the side of the
canyon have half finished Buddha statues, architectural forms and
other things calved out of them.
One bolder has what
was quite clearly meant to be the pinnacle of a stupa calved out of
it, again unfinished. There are also several artificial caves cut
out of the cliffs one of which have three small stupas in front of
it. The several inscriptions found at Goa Gajah show that both
Hindu and Buddhist ascetics once lived here. My next stop was
Besakih Bali's largest and most sacred temple , which is situated
on the lowest slopes of the spectacular Gunung Agung volcano. As
the bus wound its way gradually upward the air became cooler and
the landscape began to remind me of the country around Kandy, lush
and green and filled with flowers. The top of Gunung Agung was
hidden by cloud. Before the 10th century Besakih had been a
Buddhist temple but just as Buddhism gradually declined and was
absorbed into Hinduism so Besakih gradually became a Hindu temple.
The temple itself is laid out in a series of terraces and extends
for about a mile up the side of the volcano. I looked for signs of
Buddhism, old statues or familiar motifs but could find nothing.
Volcanic eruptions have destroyed or damaged Besakih several times
throughout its history. Perhaps excavations in the thick black ash
on which the present temple now stands would yield evidence of its
Buddhist predecessor.
My last stop was the
eastern town of Klungkung which had been capital of a small kingdom
during the 16th and 17th centuries. In the center of the town is
Taman Gili (The Island Garden) the only surviving part of the old
royal palace which was built in 1710. The ceiling of several
pavilions in the garden are covered in paintings of the highest
quality. Most of these depict incidents from the Tantrikatha, a
Balinese version of the Thousand and One Nights, and the Hindu epic
the Mahabhatara. But there is also some twenty panels illustrating
the life and adventures of a legendary Buddhist character named
Satusoma. Unfortunately, try as I might, I was unable to find out
anything about Satusoma before going to Bali and so could not make
sense of any of the paintings. Being part of the old Netherlands
East Indies much of the historical research on Bali is in Dutch and
not accessible to an English speaker like myself. However, the
paintings depicting Satusoma's deeds are full of action and drama
and the legends about him are probably very interesting (see
above). I have made a point to find out more about him. Although my
main intention in visiting Bali was to seek out traces of Buddhism
I was very interested in seeing the many beautiful Hindu temples
also. When I was at the Puseh Pura Desa Temple at Batubulan I
chanced to see a line of images which included an elegantly calved
one of the Buddha Later in the temple at Pura Ulunsiwa I saw
another statue of the Buddha still being worshiped. Hinduism first
integrated Buddhism into itself and then erased its identity
leaving only there two sad reminders.
The last census in 1989 showed that there were 13,274 Buddhists
in Bali, nearly all of them either ethnic Chinese or people from
other parts of Indonesia. There are two Buddhist temples, one in
Singharaj in the north of the island built by the Thai and
Indonesian governments in 1971 and another in Dempasar. I visited
both these establishments and was sad to see that the monks in them
did little more than conduct rituals and do blessings for the
people who came. I was invited to the homes of several Buddhists
and was treated with the greatest respect but it was very clear
that my hosts knew little about the Dhamma. They all acknowledged
their ignorance and seemed to have a genuine desire to know more
but as they all said, there was no one to teach them. On a more
positive note, I met a devote Javanese lady now living in Dempasar
who has been very active in publishing books on Buddhism for free
distribution. But Hinduism on Bali is surprisingly vigorous and
still claims the allegiance of almost everyone, young and old. It
seems unlikely that the teachings of the Buddha will prove
attractive to the Balinese for a long time in the
future.