The Forgotten Image of Bali
Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 by Sidarta WijayaThe first European visitors to Bali saw much different Bali than nowadays visitors have seen. The first foreign visitors saw Bali as an island of theft and murder, full of menace with ferocious inhabitants, a warlike nation. In the mid-seventeenth century Bali was a dangerous place, wild and untamed, where Europeans loath to go. In the eyes of European writer Bali was a heathen land where barbarities such as widow burning practiced in much vigor.
During the flourishing time of slave trade in seventeenth century, the rebellious nature and great tendency of run amok of Balinese male slave contributed a great deal to form warlike image of Balinese. Jan Troet, one of the prominent slave traders in the archipelago, gave much information on Bali as a place of brutality through his letters of complaints to the VOC rather than any comprehensive account of Bali or Balinese slave. In 1661 Troet sent a complain letter to the company about male Balinese slaves.
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