Klungkung Palace

Today the basic remains of the palace are the court of justice, the Kertha Gosa Pavilion, and the main gate that bears the date Saka 1622 (AD 1700).

The descendants of the rajas that once ruled Klungkung today live in Puri Agung, a residence to the west of the old palace, which was built after 1929.

At any rate, it seems that by the late 1630s Gusti or Anglurah Agung had already become a dominant political force at the royal court, and that the tenancy of the throne shifted between 1639 and 1643.

[4] In 1686 Dewa Agung Jambe I (Dalem Di Made's son),[7] assisted by nobles from Badung, Karangasem and Tabanan, defeated Gusti Anung Maruti and gained possession of Gelgel.

[4] Within a few years he then set up a new court 3 km north of Gelgel and named his capital Puri Semarapura: "The Abode of the Gods".

Although he did not have the prerogatives of his Gelgel forebears, the new palace maintained a degree of prestige and precedence on the politically fragmented island.

Dewa Agung Gede alias Surawirya (r. c. 1722-1736) allied with the influential king of Mengwi and performed an expedition to Java together with him.

He was an activist leader who intervened in the affairs of the other south Balinese kingdoms, which were still only nominally attached to the Dutch East Indies.

[14] The alleged plundering of the stranded ship Sri Kumala in 1904, led to a renewed Dutch military foray in 1906.

Two years later, in a similar manner, an incident in nearby Gelgel triggered a punitive colonial expedition to Klungkung (see Dutch intervention in Bali (1908)).

Dewa Agung Jambe II, the members of his dynasty and their retainers sallied forth from the palace and engaged in a puputan.

Because the Kerta Gosa was the court of the high king of Bali, cases on the island that could not be resolved were transferred to this site.

The convicts (as well as visitors today) were able to view the ceiling which depicted different punishments in the afterlife, and the results of karma, while they were awaiting sentencing.

Leading artists of Kamasan village such as Kaki Rambut, Pan Seken, Mangku Mura, and Nyoman Mandra have been responsible for the repaintings in the twentieth century.

[20] He underlines the dimension of meditation,[2] supported by the top two levels of paintings that expound the pacification of obstacles, resistance of temptation by the nymphs, and self-realization as Mahavairocana.

[21] This pavilion's architecture symbolizes Meru, the center of the universe, surrounded by the moat for the cosmic ocean and source of life Anavatapa.