Sights in the City of the Lion King Singaraja...

When you travel to northern Bali it's likely that you pass Singaraja on your way to Lovina beach, which is only 10 minutes down the road.

It’s Bali’s second largest city, the formal capital and it has a couple of interesting tourism sights you can visit.

The name Singaraja means Lion King and is a reminder of the powerful King Gusti Panji Sakti who exported Balinese slaves to Java island in exchange for gold and opium in the 17th century.

The trade increased and a wealthy city in northern Bali was born. It attracted Chinese, Indians, Arabs, Malay and Javanese and nowadays the city looks more like a Javanese city then a Balinese city.

Because of the its prosperous harbour and route to the spice islands of Maluccu the Dutch colonial power conquered the city and the northern district of Buleleng in 1849 and made her the capital of Bali.

The old warehouses of the Dutch...

 

The harbour was also the gateway for foreigners to the beautiful island of Bali. Every traveller arrived by boat in Singaraja first before he continued his journey over the mountains to the south.

After World War II the Dutch had to give up Bali and the new Indonesian government moved to Denpasar. The harbour was also moved but this time 40 km west of Singaraja to Celukanbawang.

Furthermore the development of tourism in Kuta beach, Sanur, Nusa Dua and the international Bali airport in Tuban took away the spotlights on the city.

Even though the Dutch had to leave the city there are still architectural reminders of their influence, especially near the former harbor.

Here you can still see the old coffee and tobacco warehouses, the antique bridge, the white colonial houses and the statue of freedom fighter I Longtong, who points with his finger to sea.

Statue of I Longtong near the harbor...

 

After World War II the Dutch tried to get their island back and planted their flag in the harbour of Buleleng, where a Balinese man called I Longtong removed it with the Indonesian flag. After he came down from the flag pole the Dutch shot him and he was killed.

Now the only colourful building in the area is the Chinese temple where Confucian businessmen honour their ancestors. On the western side of the city you can find the Chinese cemetery with colourful decorated graves.

The Chinese temple...

 

If you love old books, you should try to visit the small historical library, Gedong Kertya, which was founded by the Dutch to preserve the Balinese culture in 1928.

It has more than 3000 books made out of lontar palm about religion, medical science, literature, history, mythology, magic formula and folklore of Bali and Lombok. The books from Lombok were stolen from the palace in Mataram during a military expedition in 1894.

 

Entrance to the library

 

It is said the Balinese are afraid to enter the library out of fear of being cursed by the spirits of the holly books...

There are also “presastis”, small metal plates with old-Balinese inscriptions from the Pejeng-Bedulu dynasty in the 14th century. They belong to the oldest written documents on Bali.

 

Singambaraja with the governor's office

 

Near the library there are three other interesting sights; the royal temples of Puri Kawan (behind the library), Puri Kanginan (to the north-east) and the symbol of the city Singambaraja, the winged lion (down the road on the right side of the library).