Balinese Hinduism did not arrive all at once. It grew over well over a thousand years, as Hindu and Buddhist ideas from India, carried mostly by way of Java, met an older island faith centered on ancestors, mountains and water. Knowing that history helps explain why Bali's religion looks so different from Hinduism in India, and why the island remained Hindu while most of the surrounding archipelago became Muslim.
Trade links with India reached Bali early, and by the late first millennium Balinese kings were closely tied to Javanese courts. Majapahit, the great Hindu-Javanese empire, conquered Bali in 1343. As Islam spread through Java in the late 15th century, priests, artists and nobles moved east to Bali. The most influential was the priest Dang Hyang Nirartha, traditionally said to have arrived in 1492, who served the king of Gelgel and is regarded as the ancestor of Bali's Shaivite high priests.
Dutch rule, completed in the south by 1908, left village temples largely intact. After independence, the new Indonesian state recognized only religions with one supreme God, and Balinese leaders recast their faith around Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa; recognition followed in 1958. The council Parisada Hindu Dharma Bali was founded in 1959 and renamed Parisada Hindu Dharma Indonesia in 1964. Old Bali Aga villages such as Tenganan still keep customs older than Majapahit.
Highlights
- Hindu-Javanese roots reaching back over a thousand years
- Majapahit conquest of 1343
- The reforming priest Dang Hyang Nirartha
- Official recognition in modern Indonesia
Good to know
- Visit Pura Dasar Buana in Gelgel to see the seat of the old royal court Nirartha served.
- Tenganan, near Candidasa, offers a glimpse of Bali Aga traditions that predate Majapahit.
- Many sea temples, including Uluwatu and Tanah Lot, are linked by tradition to Nirartha's travels.
The History of Bali
From the first kingdoms and the arrival of Majapahit to colonial conquest, the puputan and the island's modern reinvention.