Bali

An island of Indonesia east of Java. The earliest inscriptions date from the end of the 9th and the 10th centuries, where Buddhism and Shaivite Hinduism have been practiced since the 7th century.

Archaeologically, the island of Bali has always lived in the shadow of its bigger neighbour Java. The earliest inscriptions, dating from the end of the 9th and the 10th century, reveal an independent Indianized Balinese society practising Buddhism and Sivaism at the same time. The marriage of the king of Bali to a Javanese princess in the late 10th century resulted in the introduction of Javanese culture into the island. Javanese political control was established by the conquest of the island in 1284 and again in 1343; mass immigration of Javanese intensified the Javanization of Bali. From the middle of the 15th century on, when the Indian cults in their old form (Sivaism, Vishnuism, Theravada Buddhism using Sanskrit, and Mahayana Buddhism) retreated before the advance of Islam in Java, Bali became the intellectual centre preserving the essentials of Indo-Javanese culture. However, the fact that at present only seven per cent of the population belong to the trivamsa (castes) shows that Indianization did not percolate to the masses.