Description of the attraction
Puputan Square is located in the historical center of Denpasar, a city in the south of Bali. Denpasar is the largest city on the Indonesian island of Bali, as well as the administrative center of the Bali province. The city's name translates to "east of the market". This city became the capital of the island of Bali in 1958. There are many monuments in the city, and for curious tourists it will be interesting to see the combination of Javanese, Chinese and European cultures in the architecture of the city.
Puputan Square is known for its tragic history, the display of which can be seen in the monument on the square, which depicts a man, a woman and two children in heroic poses and waving daggers in their hands. Puputan is translated from Balinese as “to fight to the end” and means ritually suicide, which occurs when there is a humiliating surrender to the enemy.
The monument was erected as a reminder of the Dutch invasion of Bali - the events of September 1906, when the Dutch army landed on the northern part of Sanur Beach and headed for Denpasar. When the Dutch troops approached the castle, a procession led by the Raja emerged from the castle, carried on a palanquin by four porters. The Raja was dressed in traditional white clothes for the funeral, he was wearing many ornaments, and in his hands he held a kris - a national dagger with an asymmetrical blade shape. The rest of the rajah's retinue - officials, guards, priests, wives, children - were also dressed in similar clothes and held the same daggers in their hands. The procession stopped a hundred paces from the Dutch, the Rajah gave a sign to his priest, who immediately thrust the Kris into the Rajah's chest. The rest of the procession simultaneously began killing each other. The Dutch opened fire. In total, about 1000 Balinese died. The Dutch removed the jewels from the corpses, and the Rajah's palace was destroyed.
As a reminder of this terrible massacre, a monument was erected on the site of the destroyed palace.
