Balinese war And Culture

This paper on Balinese and Sasak views on warfare in a historiographical perspective opens with an overview of the specifics of the babad genre. It then considers material aspects of the babad accounts, such as weaponry and tactics, and how they contrast with contemporary Western accounts of the pre-modern era. The paper then discusses the idea of causality - the causes of war according to these accounts, and how wars are inserted into the general narrative of the babad - before considering whether moral or ethical aspects of the conduct of warfare are visible in these sources. Attention then turns to the perception of foreign groups in Balinese and Sasak stories of warfare. The concluding discussion places these findings in the context of power relations and power structures on pre-colonial Bali and Lombok.