Bali Artilce

Water pavilion`s, or `floating palaces` (bale kambang) as they are more poetically known, occupy a special place in Balinese architecture.

Traditionally, the garden of the ruler in Java during the Hindu-Budhist era seems to have been perceived in a mystical light-a place apart from the mundane world where the king could go to meditate and commune with the gods. An island at the centre of a lake or pond appears to have been a typical feature.

This design may have originated in cosmographical terms as a representation of the Hindu-Buddhist universe with the ruler positioned at the centre, his temporal powers sanctioned by the gods.

Similar ideas existed in Bali. The temple complex at Taman Ayun in the former kingdom of Mengwi is completely surrounded by a moat and was built as an earthly replica of the heavens where the deified ancestors of the royal family of Mengwi are supposed to disport themselves in floating pavilions attended to by celestial nymphs-a delightful idea and one that was replicated in the ornamental lotus pools and bale kambang of Balinese palaces.

The Canadian-born composer and writer Colin Mcphee, who lived in Bali for several years before the second World Was, provides this atmospheric description in A House in Bali of his visits to the water garden in the palace compound of the impoverished Raja pf Saba, in the former kingdom of Karangasem: “As our friendship grew the Anak Agung`s gifts (without which I could never depart) became more personal-a ring; a handsome fighting cock; a cutting from one of his precious litchi trees. And always three or four gurami fish fresh from the water, still twitching on the thong that held them by the gills.

“These fish were fat and delicious, and were raised in an artificial pond that lay in the park beyond the palace. Once this had been a fine garden, but now hibiscus, gardenia, jasmine and poinsettia fought amongst themselves beneath the confusion of palms. Orchids drooped from boughs, and the ground was black and slippery. The pond had a little pleasure pavilion in the centre, connected to the land by a rickety bamboo bridge, and here the Anak Agung often took his siesta, alone or accompanied.

McPhee became a firm friend of Anak Agung Bagus and was a frewuent guest at the palace: “….after we had eaten, I would walk through the park to the pavilion in the pond, which was given to me each time I came. Surrounded by water in this forgotten park, in this far island of friendly and mysterious people-this seemed the final exquisite isolation. In the stillness two turtle-doves called and answered monotonously, I read until I fell asleep.”

Certain Balinese floating pavilion are also place the major historical interest. The bale kambang in front of the old palace at Kerta Gosa, the island`s former centre of justice, was the site for a mass ritual suicide (known as the puputan, or ending) during violent conflict with the Dutch colonialists in 1908.