Banjar, Bali

Banjar is a small town on the coastal plain in North Bali. It was the seat of a semi-independent kingdom in the 19th century. The kingdom was ruled by a Brahman class who were literary scholars. In 1871, the ruling family of Banjar put up a fierce resistance to Dutch rule. It resulted in one of the first recorded puputan, or fight to the last, in Bali.

Among the sights in Banjar today is a Buddhist monastery known as Brahma Vihara Ashrama. It was founded by a local brahman, Bhikku Giri Rakhita, in 1970. The brahman had converted to Thai-style Theravada Buddhism, and introduced this form of Buddhism to Banjar with the monastery.

Another sight in Banjar is the hot spring, Air Panas, a local picnic spot for the locals. The sulphurous water of the hot spring spurts out of eight dragon heads into ponds. Considered sacred, the hot spring has its own temple built around it.

10 km from Banjar is the remote Bali Aga village of Pedawa. Just as the Balinese resisted Dutch rule, so did the Bali Aga resisted Javanese occupation, retaining their own Hindu beliefs which predates the form of Hinduism brought in later. As a result, the Hindu shrine of the Bali Aga is different from those of mainstream Balinese.

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