Ubud: from the Origins to 19201
Ubud: From The Origins to 19201 Jean Couteau* Abstract Today’s historis often tries to weave together unquestionable facts with a narrative that consciously gives room to past myths and legends. The following article about the famous “cultural” resort of Ubud freely applies this approach to history. Myths and legends about the origin of Ubud combine with unquestionable historical facts to convey, beyond the Ubud’s raw history proper, the prevailing athmosphere of Ubud’s pre-modern past. Thus the mythical seer Resi Merkandaya is made to appear alongside the story of the kembar buncing (fraternal, non-identical twins) of the House of Ubud, and the history of Western presence and intervention. Keywords: prince of Ubud, knowledge of tradition, modernizing Bali Ubud: In the Legendary Haze of History o those who truly know Ubud, that is, Ubud such as it was, Twhen its life was still governed, through rites, by the har- monious encounter of Man and Nature, Campuhan is a magical spot, which marks Ubud as a place bestowed by the favors of the * Dr. Jean Couteau is a French writer living in Bali who publishes extensively on a large variety of topics in French, English and Indonesian. He is mainly known in Indonesia for his essays and his writings on the arts. He is the senior editor of the international art magazine C-Arts and a lecturer at the Indonesian Art Institute (Institut Seni Indonesia/ ISI) in Denpasar. 1 This text rests on three main sources of information: Hilbery Rosemary, Reminiscences of a Balinese Prince, Tjokorde Gde Agung Sukawati, SE Asia Paper No 14, SE Asian Studies, University of Hawai, 1979; an interview of Cokorde Niang Isteri, the wife of Cokorde Agung Sukawati; and in-depth interviews of Cokorde Atun, Cokorde Agung Sukawati’s daughter.
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