Bali

 Bali English: /ˈbɑːli/  Indonesian: 'bali; Balinese: ᬩᬮᬶ is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller offshore islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nusa Ceningan to the southeast. The provincial capital, Denpasar, is the most populous city in the Lesser Sunda Islands and the second-largest, after Makassar, in Eastern Indonesia. The Denpasar metropolitan area is the extended metropolitan area around Denpasar. The upland town of Ubud in Greater Denpasar is considered Bali's cultural centre. The province is Indonesia's main tourist destination, with a significant rise in tourism since the 1980s, and has become the country's area of overtourism. Tourism-related business makes up 80% of the Bali economy.

Bali is the only Hindu-majority province in Indonesia, with 86.40% of the population adhering to Balinese Hinduism. It is renowned for its highly developed arts, including traditional and modern dance, sculpture, painting, leather, metalworking, and music. The Indonesian International Film Festival is held every year in Bali. Other international events that have been held in Bali include Miss World 2013, the 2018 Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group, and the 2022 G20 summit. In March 2017, Tripadvisor named Bali as the world's top destination in its Traveler's Choice award, which it earned once again in January 2021.

Bali is part of the Coral Triangle, an area with high diversity of marine species, especially fish and turtles. In this area alone, over 500 reef-building coral species can be found. For comparison, this is about seven times as many as in the entire Caribbean. Bali is the home of the Subak irrigation system, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is also home to a unified confederation of kingdoms composed of 10 traditional royal Balinese houses, each house ruling a specific geographic area. The confederation is the successor of the Bali Kingdom. The royal houses, which originated before Dutch colonisation, are not recognised by the government of Indonesia.

Etymology

The name Bali is attested in ancient Balinese inscriptions as part of the compound Vāli-dvīpa or Wāli-dvīpa, where Sanskrit dvīpa Sanskrit: द्वीप means island.

One of the earliest attestations of Vāli-dvīpa occurs in the Belanjong Blanjong pillar inscription, dated to Saka year 835 / Phalguna month, under King Sri Kesari Warmadewa  914 .

The precise meaning of the element Vāli Bali in Vāli-dvīpa is not certain. Some hypothesized interpretations include:

That Bali derives from Sanskrit bali बलि, meaning offering, tribute, or sacrifice, thus rendering Bali-dvīpa as Island of offerings or Island of sacrifice.

That Vāli may relate to terms signifying power, or force, or possibly be a phonetic variation  alternation of b and v common in epigraphy, which would suggest meanings such as Island of strength or similar.

References

Damais, Louis-Charles. "Études balinaises: I. La colonnette de Sanur Belanjong Pillar. Bulletin de l'École française d'Extrême-Orient. Vol. 47, 1947, pp. 127–130.

Bernet Kempers, A. J. *Monumental Bali: Introduction to Balinese Archaeology & Guide to the Monuments*. Periplus Editions, 1991, pp. 35–36.

History

Main article: History of Bali

Ancient

The Subak irrigation system has existed since the 9th century.

Bali was inhabited around 2000 BC by Austronesian peoples who migrated originally from the island of Taiwan to Southeast Asia and Oceania through Maritime Southeast Asia. Culturally and linguistically, the Balinese are closely related to the people of the Indonesian archipelago, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines, and Oceania. Stone tools dating from this time have been found near the village of Cekik in the island's west.In ancient Bali, nine Hindu sects existed: the Pasupata, Bhairawa, Siwa Shidanta, Vaishnava, Bodha, Brahma, Resi, Sora, and Ganapatya. Each sect revered a specific deity as its personal Godhead.

Inscriptions from 896 and 911 do not mention a king until 914, when Sri Kesarivarma, a contemporary of the Kesari dynasty in the Kalinga Kingdom of ancient India, is mentioned. They also reveal an independent Bali, with a distinct dialect, being influenced by the Sanskrit and Pali languages, where Buddhism and Shaivism were practiced simultaneously. Mpu Sindok's great-granddaughter, Mahendradatta Gunapriyadharmapatni, married the Bali king Udayana Warmadewa Dharmodayanavarmadeva around 989, giving birth to Airlangga around 1001. This marriage also brought more Hinduism and Javanese culture to Bali. Princess Sakalendukirana appeared in 1098. Suradhipa reigned from 1115 to 1119, and Jayasakti from 1146 until 1150. Jayapangus appears on inscriptions between 1178 and 1181, while Adikuntiketana and his son Paramesvara appear in 1204.