Book Reviewed: History of Bali: A Captivating Guide to Balinese History and the Impact This Island Has Had on the History of Indonesia and Southeast Asia by Captivating History

The story of an island paradise This is a comprehensive history of Bali that narrates the tale of an ancient culture's vulnerability and its resilience in the modern world. This island paradise drew migrants, invaders, and colonizers over thousands of years. In Bali's early history, the people took little action in repelling external forces and the endless waves of cultural and economic changes that engulfed them. It is a living monument that celebrates the golden age of Hindu empires that ruled the seas of Southeast Asia in pursuit of spices, exotic goods, and sharing its Hindu culture. Bali's resistance to Islam and its perpetuation of the unique Balinese Hinduism has made the island vulnerable to Islamic terrorist attacks. But Balinese people are undeterred by the external threats as they have done over a millennia and they continue to take pride in their culture and religion. The cultural and religious influences from India had reached the Indonesian archipelago as early as the first century CE long before Islam. The Majapahit Empire, a Hindu kingdom which lasted three centuries declined and that coincided with the rise of Islam Before the arrival of the Dutch in the mid-19th century, the Bali consisted of several kingdoms which fought among themselves. The ruling arrangement was complex and fragmented. The Dutch, like English colonists in India, used this incoherent Balinese regnal system to their advantage to colonize the island. Upon independence from Dutch colonial rule, the 1945 Constitution of Indonesia guaranteed freedom of religion to all its citizens, but in 1952, the Indonesian Ministry of Religion came under the control of Islamists who severely constrained the acceptable definition of a "religion." The ministry defined "religion" as one that is monotheistic with codified religious law, possesses a prophet and a Holy Book to fit Islam as the only religion. Balinese Hindus were declared as "people without a religion” and the country pressured them to convert. They disagreed and claimed Hinduism is monotheistic. To accomplish this, they initiated a series of student and cultural exchange initiatives with India to help formulate the core principles behind Balinese Hinduism, the belief in Vedas, the Puranas, and the epics, and the exposition of One God described as Brahman (Paramatma) in the sacred scriptures of Upanishads, the Bhagavadgita and the Hindu philosophical system of Vedanta. This led the Indonesian government to recognize Hinduism as an independent religion under its constitution. On the lesser side of current Balinese culture, one of the first known specimens of Homo erectus (upright humans) were found in Java dating to about one million years ago. This book is concise and brief but gives important aspects of Bali’s cultural heritage. This is a readable book even though there are no pictures of Bali’s tropical beaches, rich architecture, and design.