DENPASAR
Denpasar is a “village-city” with an aristocratic past. Born from the ashes of the defeated Pemecutan court following the puputan massacre of 1906, Denpasar became a sleepy administrative outpost during Dutch times. Since independence, and especially after it was made the capital of Bali in 1958, it has been transformed into a bustling city of some 350,000 souls that provides administrative, commercial and educational services not only to booming Bali, but to much of eastern Indonesia as well. Denpasar is the most dynamic city east of Surabaya, and arguably the richest in the country — there are more vehicles per capita here than in Jakarta.
Denpasar is nevertheless a modern city. Shops, roads and markets have conquered the wet ricefield areas allowed to be leased and sold by village communities. Here, urbanization has taken on the same features found elsewhere in Indonesia — rows of gaudily-painted shops in the business districts; pretty villas along the “protokol” streets; narrow alleys, small compounds and tiny houses in the residential areas.
This new urban space continues to welcome waves of new immigrants — Balinese as well as non-Balinese. As such, it represents an experiment in national integration. Inland Balinese indeed make up the majority of the population. The northerners and southern princes and brahmans were here first. Early beneficiaries of a colonial education, they took over the professions and the main administrative positions and constitute, together with the local nobility, the core of the native bourgeoisie. Their villas — with their roof temples, neo-classical columns and Spanish balconies — are the modern “palaces” of Bali.
More recently, a new Balinese population has settled here, attracted by jobs as teachers, students, nurses, traders, etc. Strangers among the local “villagers,” these Balinese are the creators of a new urban landscape and architecture. Instead of setting up traditional compounds with their numerous buildings and shrines, they build detached houses with a single multi-purpose shrine. In religious natters, they are transients — retaining ritual membership in their village of origin, praying to gods and ancestors from a distance through the medium of the new shrine. They return home for major ceremonies, to renew themselves at the magical and social sources of their village of origin.
Denpasar has two hotels of historical and cultural note—Bali Hotel and the Pemecutan Palace Hotel. The rest of the hotels in Denpasar are Losmen-style, catering mostly to groups and domestic tourists. If you’re on a tight budget and travel with a group, these can be a great bargain. During the Indonesian holiday seasons (June through August, Lebaran and Christmas/New Year), the hotels fill up, so make reservations in advance.
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