Roberto Gonzalez
Puputan Monument
The awful story represented by this monument is the death in 1908 of 200 members of the royal court of Klungkung who committed suicide in a ritual, fighting to the death, like the Japanese kamikaze pilots. In a final confrontation, on April 18 1908, Dewa Agung Jambe, Klungung Raja, accompanied by 200 followers, made a desperate exit from his palace, dressed in black and armed with a dagger to wreak havoc on the enemy, according to a prophecy. The daggar did not have the desired result and the Raja was killed by a Dutch bullet. Immediately, the Puputan fighters committed suicide, killing themselves with their own swords, soon followed by the rest of the court.
The monument, made of the plentiful gray stone of the island, houses sculptures representing the royal court and describes life on the island before the arrival of the Dutch, during the occupation and the image of ritual sacrifice.
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