Through the Eyes of Researcher: Buddhism in Bali

Here is an interesting writing on Buddhism in Bali by venerable S. Dhammika. It is interesting to see the point of view of a Buddhist Monk form outside Bali on Buddhism in Bali.

Much attention has been given to how far west Buddhism extended in ancient times. The most westerly Buddhist monument that can be is the foundations of a large stupa in the south east corner of the ancient citadel of Khiva in Turkmenistan. Small communities of Buddhists may have existed beyond this but if they did they would have been insignificant, isolated and exceptional. We can say therefor that the outer edge of Buddhism in the west was what is now eastern Iran. But how far to the east did Buddhism spread its gentle and civilizing influence? To the outer islands of Indonesia, to Australia or perhaps beyond? In the 1920’s a superb bronze bust of the Buddha was found on Sulawesi, one of the larger islands that make up Indonesia. This is the eastern most point that any Buddhist antiquity has ever been found. There is, though, no evidence of an enduring Buddhist presence either on Sulawesi or beyond it; no ruined temples or monasteries, no inscriptions or references to it in the historical records. However, only a few hundred miles south west of Sulawesi is the small island of Bali where MajapahitG and literary evidence shows that Buddhism existed along side Hinduism for about seven hundred years.

Indian merchants first arrived in Bali in about 200 BCE and it was probably these people who introduced Buddhism and Hinduism. A Balinese work of uncertain date called the Nagarakertagama by the Buddhist monk lists all the Buddhist temples in Bali, twenty six altogether, and mentions that in 1275 King Kretanagara underwent a Tantric Buddhist initiation to protect his kingdom from an expected invasion by Kublai Khan. The island’s history is scant until 1343 when it was conquered by and absorbed into the Majapahit Empire of Java-Sumatra. Hinduism and Buddhism both received state patronage although the type of Buddhism that prevailed gradually became indistinguishable from Hinduism. A Javanese Buddhist work from about the 12th century contains this telling verse. “The one substance is called two, that is, the Buddha and Siva. They say they are different but how can they be divided? Despite differences there is oneness”. Clearly at the time these words were being composed some Buddhists were struggling to maintain the uniqueness of the Dharma while others were stressing its similarity with Hinduism. Eventually in both Java and Bali the integrators prevailed. Incidentally, the phrase “Despite differences there is oneness” ( Bhineka tunggal ika ) has been taken as the motto for the Republic of Indonesia. With the collapse of Mahapahit in 1515 and the ascendancy of Islam, Java’s old intellectual and religious elite, including the last surviving Buddhist monks and scholars sought refuge in Bali.

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