CHAPTER FIFTEEN A SMALL CHRISTIAN FLOCK IN BALI Among the great cultural and religious varieties of Indonesia, the island Bali shows one of the most spectacular examples. For reasons that are not clear until today, the island did not accept Islam in the fourteenth-eighteenth centuries, while all surrounding islands turned towards that new religion. Java on its western, Lombok and Sumbawa on its eastern side, Sulawesi as well as southern Kalimantan embraced Islam in that period, but the island of Bali remained devoted to its own variety of Hinduism. On the margin of Balinese society some trade with outsiders, especially the Dutch, took place, in the harbours only. In the nineteenth century, slowly, colonial society could gain some infl u- ence in Balinese society. Since the 1850s the Dutch government had already established a strong presence on North Bali with Singaraja as its centre. But only in 1908 was the whole island truly conquered in a bloody battle in South Bali. Since then the colonial administrators remained very cautious and did not like to trouble Balinese society too much. In order to prevent disturbances, foreign missionaries were not allowed to work in the island. Th e ban on missionary work, which lasted until the mid-1930s, was also based on the tragic outcome of the fi rst Christian propaganda in the 1860s. In 1864 three missionaries of the Utrecht Mission Society (UZV) arrived in Buleleng. Th ey started language training, and with much trouble they were able to establish a small school where never more than seven pupils attended classes. In 1873 the fi rst and only baptism in this period took place. Th e con- vert, I Gusti Karangasem, a migrant from East Bali, disappeared shortly aft er embracing the new religion. Only in June 1881 was there renewed contact between the only remaining missionary, J. de Vroom, and this fi rst Balinese Christian. Apparently the convert, embarrassed by his condition as an isolated Christian, had sought support from the missionary but he received only a severe scrutinizing about his orthodoxy. Th ereupon he asked several Muslim friends to kill the missionary. I Gusti Karangasem was executed together with his associates who had killed the missionary. In this period there was an off er to the Catholic mission by language researcher for the Bible Society Herman Neubronner van der Tuuk, working from 1849 until 1857 in Batakland, and aft er a period in Lampung, South Sumatera, from 1870 until his death in 1894 in Bali. Van der Tuuk was an outspoken agnostic who was glad that from 1873 his salary was no longer was paid by the Bible Society but by the colonial government. He deemed the K.A. Steenbrink and J.S. Aritonang - 9789047441830 Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 04:49:20AM via free access 732 chapter fifteen Protestant mission as ‘absolutely inappropriate’ to work in Bali. Th e Catholics with their processions, statues and paintings of saints, richly decorated churches and ceremonies, would probably be more successful in this island. According to this linguistic scholar lower caste Balinese would be happy to embrace Catholicism in order to escape the inequalities of the feudal social system. Van der Tuuk was willing to give the Catholic missionaries courses in Balinese. In the 1870s there were no Catholic missionaries available for the new mission. A formal permission to start the mission was given to the Catholics in 1891 aft er repeated requests and Van der Tuuk’s suggestion was renewed, but again there was a shortage of missionaries.1 Aft er the eff ective conquest of Bali in 1908 no missionary activity was allowed although there were repeated requests from the Protestant and Catholic missionary organisations. Only in September 1920 was permission was given to the Catholics to start a Dutch language school in Denpasar or Gianyar. However, due to the death of Prefect Noyen (of Flores) during a trip to Europe, on 24 February 1921, the implementation of the plan was postponed. Noyen’s successor, Arnold Verstraelen, had to renew the request for an HIS, now to be opened in Bangli. Verstraelen sent his formal letter on 11 June 1924. On 24 June of that year Volksraad member Tjok Gede Raka Soekawati gave a pas- sionate speech against the infl uence of any Christian mission in Bali, “Western infl uence of any kind is welcomed by us, but not the Christian religion.”2 Th is was the beginning of a long debate that has been described by Dutch mission- ary Hendrik Kraemer (1933) in a book as “Th e Missionary Battle for Bali.” In 1924 a private HIS with a Hindu-Balinese background was established in Klungkung and the missionary proposals were rejected. While classical missionary organisations were still active lobbying for a permit to start work in Bali, all of a sudden in 1930 a Chinese evangelist, hired by CAMA, Christian and Missionary Alliance, started preaching in Bali with the permission of the colonial administration, to serve the small group of Chinese Christians in Bali. Th is man, Tsang Kam Fuk (later also called Tsang To Hang, a recent arrival from China with no good command of Malay, speak- ing only Chinese) started work among Chinese migrants in Bali, mostly small shopkeepers who in many cases were married to Balinese women. Th rough these connections a group of Balinese in the region of Mengwi were attracted to hear about the new religion. Th ere were rumours that this group too were poor lower caste and illiterate people who wanted to escape the heavy burden of the many obligations of Balinese social and religious life with its many and expensive ceremonies and 1 Steenbrink 2003:66–67; 392–394. 2 Quoted in: Muskens 1974–IIIb:1408. K.A. Steenbrink and J.S. Aritonang - 9789047441830 Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 04:49:20AM via free access a small christian flock in bali 733 forced labour for building and restoration of temples. But there are also indica- tions that the fi rst Balinese converts in the Mengwi region were followers of a Javanese primary school teacher and mystical leader, Raden Atmadjakoesoema working already in Bali since 1908. Th is man had preached about an escha- tological event in the near future related to a religious person in white cloth. Atmadjakoesoema was sent into exile aft er the communist uprisings in Java and Sumatra of 1926, but apparently a group of people saw in the coming of the Chinese preacher a fulfi lment of his announcements.3 Several of these fi rst converts were sent to Makassar to attend the Bible school of CAMA. In June 1931 Rev. R. Jaff ray baptised four Balinese through immersion, and in November 1932 there were 113 more baptisms. Th e Balinese villages of the Mengwi region reacted in a quite drastic way. All new Christians were expelled from the villages and declared excommunicated and dead. Quite a few returned to Balinese tradition and religion, but many remained loyal to their new faith. However, their rice-fi elds no longer received water for irrigation and their rice plants were destroyed. It was widely spread among Balinese that evangelist Tsang had said that food off erings should be given to dogs rather than presented in the temples and at other places for off er- ings. In October 1934 again 125 Balinese were baptised by a young Balinese, I Made Glendung, who had followed the Bible school in Makassar between 1931 and 1933 and had become the fi rst Balinese preacher.4 Th e colonial administration was not happy with the upheaval caused by the preaching of Christianity and the vehement Balinese reactions. In August 1933 permission for work in Bali was withdrawn for foreign workers and evangelist Tsang and Dr. Jaff ray were no longer allowed to spread Christianity. In consul- tation with the delegate for the Protestant Mission (Zendingsconsul) in Batavia and Hendrik Kraemer in Malang, it was decided that East Javanese ministers would assist the small fl ock of Balinese Christians. Aft er strong protests the CAMA leadership agreed to withdraw from Bali and to end the training of Balinese in the Bible School in Makassar.5 CAMA people, feeling themselves in rivalry with the Dutch missionary organisations, only consented to this step under threat of a total ban from the Dutch colony. Th e colonial government had to choose between the freedom of religion it wanted to defend and the beginning of democracy. Not only in the Volksraad, but also in the councils 3 Swellengrebel 1948:68. 4 Sources diff er about the number of baptisms and the exact locations: numbers from Catholic and government reports are lower than CAMA information. See Rai Sudhiarsa 2001:134–135, based on local sources; also Kersten 1940:208. Swellengrebel 1948:73 mentions October 1934 for the fi rst mass-baptism of 123 candidates; so also Lewis 1995:247. Müller-Krüger 1968:239 mentions for this November 1932 baptism the number of 113. A detailed discussion of sources in Nyoman Wijaya 2003:31–44. 5 Jongeling 1966:203. K.A. Steenbrink and J.S. Aritonang - 9789047441830 Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 04:49:20AM via free access 734 chapter fifteen of Balinese village chiefs there were strong protests against the creeping in of Christianity. Th e East Javanese assistant-ministers were native Indonesians and they needed no special permit for working as pastors to Christians in Bali. Less attention has been given to an even somewhat earlier start of mission- ary work in North Bali in 1929 by a Javanese recent convert to Christianity from Kediri.