A Brief Historical and Socioeconomic View of Buleleng, Singaraja and Kampung Bugis

While I'm still recuperating at home and unable to start my walking tours of the city, I'll start this series on Singaraja with some historical and socioeconomic background information on the regency, city and my neighborhood.

Singaraja is the capital of the regency of Buleleng, which covers the north side of the island of Bali. Buleleng is the largest province of Bali in terms of area. During the colonial period, Singaraja was the capital of Bali and the Lesser Sunda Islands; in 1953 the capital was moved to Denpasar in the south. During the colonial period, the harbor in Singaraja was the entry point to the island for visitors and a variety of goods including slaves and opium.

Raja of Buleleng and his secretary circa 1875. Image:
Tropenmuseum of the Royal Tropical Institute

Buleleng was founded on March 30, 1604, by the legendary Gusti Panji Sakti who was descended from the son of Dalem Sagening, king of Gelgel, and who at one time ruled both Buleleng and Blambangan in Java. The story goes that Panji Sakti left Klungkung to found a new kingdom in North Bali. When Panji Sakti reached the top of the mountain range, he was thirsty, but there was no water. So, he drove his magic kris into the ground and a spring formed. This spring still exists today at the site of the Pura Yeh Ketipat temple in the Lake Beratan area. Eventually Panji Sakti built three palaces; the last palace was at the site of Singaraja and this is considered the official birth date (1604) of the city and the kingdom of Buleleng.

Buleleng was the first of the Balinese kingdoms to fall to the Dutch after three battles in 1846, 1848 and 1849. (I'll have more about this in my posts about the Bugis in Kampung Bugis.) Buleleng has 9 kecamatans (sub-districts); these are Gerokgak, Seririt, Busung Biu, Banjar, Buleleng, Sukasada, Sawan, Kubutambahan and Tejakula. Geographically Buleleng includes mountain ranges in the south, two lakes in the mountains and the relatively narrow coastal plane that skirts the Bali Sea on the north. Agriculture, manufacturing, tourism and crafts are the main areas of the economy. The regency's land area is 24.25% of the total land area of Bali. Buleleng's has a varied climate; the mountain ranges to the south regularly receive rainfall, while the coastal area has a dry season and a wet season.

According to the Kabupaten Buleleng's website, the regency (or district as it is sometimes called) had a population of 786,972 in 2009. While the sub-district of Buleleng has the smallest area of the nine sub-districts, it has the largest population and highest population density. The sub-district of Buleleng had a population of 146,942 with a density of 1,515 people per square kilometer; the city of Singaraja has somewhere between 80,000 to 100,000 residents and this accounts for the high population density of Buleleng. Singaraja is known as a city of education.

Kampung Bugis is located right along the Bali Sea (sometimes also called the Java Sea or the Bali/Java Sea), and is adjacent to the harbor. The total area of Kampung Bugis is 30 hectares. In addition to having the sea as its northern border, it borders Kampung Baru to the east, Kampung Kajanan to the south and Kampung Anyar to the west. The kampung has 3,299 residents, divided almost equally between males and females. Trading is the most common occupation, and there are 21 residents listed as making their livelihood by fishing.

So, enough history and statistics for now. There will be more later on the lifeinthetropics blog when I get finished with my translation of the thesis on the role of the Bugis people in the development of Kampung Bugis.

Singaraja, Buleleng, Bali: A City to Discover

Sometimes a bout of illness or a less than sparkling medical checkup can be a good thing, a call to make a few changes. I've mostly been in bed for the past three weeks with a nasty flu bug that turned into pneumonia, and my wife's recent checkup indicated that she needed to change her diet some and get more exercise. As we were discussing what we were going to do to get a bit healthier, I came across some advice on one of the medical websites that suggested walking 10,000 steps a day as a relatively easy way to get some exercise. Add that to my recent work in translating a thesis on the origins of the Bugis people and the development of Kampung Bugis (my home neighborhood), and I decided that it was about time to get out wandering around the city on foot. Generally, I travel by motorcycle, but with the traffic in Singaraja getting worse by the day (or so it seems), I miss a lot of the cool things around this city because I have to keep my eye on all the vehicles on the streets.

Singaraja, Bali

I love walking around cities. During my youth in Chicago, I walked all over the north side and the downtown area; I've taken extended walking tours of New York, San Francisco, Singapore, Bangkok, Amritsar, Lahore, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur and Manila. But I've done very little actual walking around my lovely city of Singaraja. The city dates back over 500 years, and while a lot of the old buildings have been torn down over the past several decades, there are still plenty of interesting sites to see while walking around Singaraja.

So, I've decided to get my exercise by taking some extended walks through the many neighborhoods here that I only zoomed through on my motorcycle. I'll be writing about the city as it exists now, and I'll be adding some historical information as well, both here and on my lifeinthetropics blog. So stop by and see what Singaraja is like for a long term foreign resident.