Village of Ancestral
Spirits
For over a thousand years Batuan has been a village of artists
and craftsmen, old legends and mysterious tales. Batuan's recorded
history begins in A-D. 1022, with an inscription that is housed
in the main village temple, Pura Desa Batuan. The name "Batuan"
or "Baturan" mentioned here prompts villagers to joke
about being "tough as stone" or "eating rocks"
- as batu means "stone" in Balinese. But it likely refers
to an ancient megalithic tradition in which standing stones served
as meeting places and ceremonial sites for the worship of ancestral
spirits.
Famous families
Batuan's central location in south Bali is the primary reason
for its historical importance. Besides the ancient village temple,
there is a temple called Pura Gede Mecaling which is said to be
on the site of the old palace of the demon king Jero Gede Mecaling,
whose name the Balinese are afraid to even utter. He is supposed
to have moved from here to the island of Nusa Penida, where he
still reside.
In the 1600s the famous family of Gusti Ngurah Batulepang dominated
south Bali, living as prime ministers based in Batuan. They remained
prime ministers until the early 1700s, when a branch of the Klungkung
royal family was established at nearby Sukawati. At that time
the chief centers of the kingdom were Sukawati, Batuan, and the
nearby sea side village of Ketewel. Batuan still has ritual links
with Ketewel that commemorate that era.
The family of Batulepang scattered to the far corners of Bali
in subsequent centuries as the result of a priestly curse, but
a small temple for Gusti Batulepang remains on the site of his
palace. The Buddhist priests or pedanda boda who later made Batuan
a great spiritual center built a house, the Griya Ageng on that
part of Batulepang's temple where death rituals were once held.
They then marshaled powerful Tantric forces here.
Brahman majority
Because Batuan became a center from which Buddhist priests and
brahmans spread to main court centers of south Bali, the village
has an unusual preponderance of brahmans DeZoete and Spies, in
their famous book Dance and Drama in Bali, describe it almost
as entirely a brahman village. This is not really true, but much
of the village near the main Denpasar to Ubud road is inhabited
by the extended family of the Buddhist Griya Ageng and of a smaller
number of Siwa-worshipping brahmans who came later to Batuan.
The other main high caste family the Dewas, related to the Batua,
or extended palace family, who are in turn closely related to
the Gianyar royal family. Batuan is unusual in that commoners
actually form a minority in the center of the village.
The western area of Batuan, known Negara, was a separate village
and court center in the 19th century. It grew so powerful that
it revolted against the main house Gianyar in 1884, destroying
the kingdom and setting south Bali on a path of inter conflict
which opened it up to Dutch conquest. In 1900, when the Dutch
took over Gianyar, Negara was incorporated within Batuan Similarly,
the adjacent area of Puaya, a famous center for dance and theater
ornaments, puppets and other objects made from hide, is regarded
as being quite separate.
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