@article{oai:minpaku.repo.nii.ac.jp:00004212,
 author = {永渕, 康之 and Nagafuchi, Yasuyuki},
 issue = {2},
 journal = {国立民族学博物館研究報告, Bulletin of the National Museum of Ethnology},
 month = {Oct},
 note = {On January 21, 1917, a large earthquake hit Bali island. Damage
was greatest in the southern part, which had been colonized by the Dutch
government in the year 1908. The Balinese recognized that this earthquake
clearly meant the end of their cosmological order. Meanwhile,
after much debate, the colonial government finally decided to give financial
and technical support to restore traditional Balinese constructions,
especially temples and the residences of the former royal families. This
debate mainly focused on the necessity of protecting the traditional
culture. The earthquake thus served to objectify Balinese culture in the
colonial narratives and make it visible. The aim of this paper is to make
clear the political and cultural significance of this earthquake, along with
the debate after it, in the process of the penetration of colonial power,
and the consequences of the restoration for modern Balinese culture and
politics. The analysis concentrates on colonial narratives by examining
governmental and private documents, most written and collected by Mr.
P.A.J. Moojen, an architect, who was responsible for the restoration as
a representative of the government.
The first part characterizes the political situation around the year
1917 by describing the colonial history in Bali. At this stage colonial
sovereignty had almost accomplished the incorporation of the native
political system into the colonial order.
The second part focuses on the central problem of cultural protec-
tion, namely the restoration of the Besakih temple. Balinese as well as
international audiences now acknowledge that this temple is undoubtedly
the authentic center of Balinese religious tradition. However, the
restoration after the earthquake was a turning point [STUART-Fox
1987: 345] in the history of this temple-----previously, it had been long
neglected due to political disturbance. I highlight the political and
cultural meaning of this turning point from both the Dutch and Balinese
points of view. The latter claimed that the earthquake was the direct
consequence of the long neglect of the temple. The colonial government
accepted this, but still decided to give financial aid from the cultural protection
point of view. This mutual agreement on the necessity of
reconstructing the temple, from different standpoints, led to the
"cooperative objectification" [THOMAS 1992a: 213-214] of this cultural
center. The process involved appropriation by each side of the other's
point of view, and had other political connotations. The appropriation
resulted in making clear the division between the political world, controlled
by the colonial government, and the religious world, directed by the
Balinese colonial elite, who succeeded in strengthening their political
power by making use of the Dutch presence in the early stage of colonial
history. At the same time, the Balinese colonial elite succeeded in
disseminating the idea that Besakih was a civil temple, by claiming that
all Balinese should contribute to its restoration. Consequently, Besakih
established itself as an external symbol of Balinese traditional culture,
and at the same time as an internal one, that is, the integration of
modern civil society in Bali.
The third part focuses on the debate concerning the reconstruction
of puri, the residences of the former royal families. The central point of
the debate was the transition from the former world order, constituted
by the cosmological and political power of a royal family, to the colonial
secular political system. The Dutch government took a strict position in
order to prohibit the exercise of the former royal power, which included
the authority to mobilize manpower and materials to restore their
physical base after natural damage by such things as earthquakes. As a
result, the colonial government had to offer aid for the reconstruction of
puri, because some members of former royal families were incorporated
into the bureaucracy of colonial government under the direction of
Dutch indirect rule. The government discussed the ambiguity of the
position of puri, as they could easily represent either former royal
residences or offices of colonial government. The earthquake caused the
government to face the contradiction of indirect rule and to reconsider
the position of the former royal families.
The fourth part describes the inner debate among government
offices on cultural protection. On this point the government was clearly
divided. On the one hand, Moojen and the local head of colonial
government claimed it was necessary to restore Balinese traditional constructions
through governmental intervention involving financial aid and
technical advice. On the other hand, the department of education and
worship and the Batavia Society, both of which were requested to consider
the necessity of cultural protection by the central government, sternly
stood against the claim for intervention. Instead, they asserted noninterference
in cultural matters in Bali to allow free growth and change in
its culture. The final judgment from the central government resulted in
the colonial government intervening to restore Balinese culture to its
'original state' . In the process of this debate, the government had to
discuss how to treat native culture and the meaning of the concept of
culture itself.
The final part draws attention to the mystification of the concept of
traditional culture by focusing on stories telling the origin of the Besakih
temple. Nowadays Balinese culture tends to be accepted as a traditional
culture which does not change. People rarely recognize historical
changes and forget the fact that Balinese society experienced colonial occupation,
and during this period underwent a radical transformation.
The historical concepts held by the Balinese about their own past also
reinforce the unchanging image of their culture and underestimate the
historical process of the colonial period. This is partly because of the
dependency on the tourist industry that capitalizes on the Balinese
cultural image as tradition without change and partly because of the
decolonization policy of the Indonesian government, which authenticates
itself by emphasizing the ideological break with the colonial
period. Meanwhile it is also possible to point out that the colonial situation
itself involved mystification to make people ignore its consequence,
at least in the Balinese context. The colonial government was as much a
political device as a scholarly machine. It investigated Balinese society,
especially in the fields of philology and archeology, so that it could control
it. Consequently the government produced an authentic historical
vision, which in turn concealed the radical transformation it had created.
The association between power and knowledge in the colonial situation
served to mystify the real processes at work.},
 pages = {259--310},
 title = {1917年バリ大地震 : 植民地状況における文化形成の政治学},
 volume = {19},
 year = {1994},
 yomi = {ナガフチ, ヤスユキ}
}