History introduced to children through comics
I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Bali
Lebur Ring Klungkung (Annihilated in Klungkung), is a 64-page comic book that depicts the last-ditch battle of the royal house of Klungkung against the invading Dutch colonial forces. Its publication marks an initial step of a group of local animators, poets and a publisher in harnessing the power of a popular medium to boost the interest and awareness of Balinese youth in their island's heroic history.
About 700 free editions of the comic book were distributed recently to various schools in Klungkung, some 40 kilometers east of Denpasar, to mark the 95th anniversary of the battle, known locally as Puputan Klungkung.
The idea of visually narrating the historic event was conceived some six months ago, during a meeting between a poet of Klungkung's Binduana Art Community, Wayan Suartha, cultural observer Hartanto Yudoprasetyo and the chief editor of Lintang children's tabloid Mas Ruscitadewi, who had just succeed in organizing the first comic book competition in Bali.
"We wanted the historic battle to captivate the young and, later on, move them. Frankly speaking, a heavy, literary approach or a scholarly, historic account would not have been able to do that. That's the reason we chose a comic book format instead. That format is very popular with the young and we wanted to tap into that potential," Suartha said.
Suartha and fellow poet from Binduana Art Community Ida Bagus Parwita were later tasked with developing the story and plot of the comic book. Meanwhile, four winners of the Lintang comic book competition were enlisted to do the drawings.
"We were trying to present the event as historically accurately as possible. We lent old photographs of Klungkung and royalty to the artists, Ketut Artayasa, Panca Kumara, Agung Tri Budiasa and M Arta, to give them a glimpse of that period," Suartha said.
The Klungkung administration later joined in, providing the ten of millions of rupiah needed to cover the printing cost. Regent of Klungkung Tjokorda Gde Ngurah, a descendant of the brave nobles portrayed in the comic book, praised the work as a "smart and notable breakthrough."
The asymmetric battle between thousands of Klungkung warriors and well-equipped Dutch forces took place on April 28 1908, in the area currently known as Semarapura.
Realizing imminent defeat, King of Klungkung I Dewa Agung Jambe, a direct descendant from the Majapahit empire, and to whom all kings in Bali and Lombok paid homage, invoked the Balinese warrior's code of no surrender and decided on the Puputan, a ritualistic battle in which the warriors deliberately sought death by storming head-on into the enemy's line of fire. Most of the Klungkung royalty perished in the battle, alongside the king, Queen Dewagung Istri Muter and 12-year-old Crown Prince Dewa Agung Gde Agung.
With the fall of Klungkung, the Dutch finally gained control over the whole island of Bali.
The comic book succeed in capturing the drama of the battle and the fighting spirit of the Klungkung warriors. However, some technical flaws indicated a need for future improvement.
"There are some flaws on the anatomy of the characters and the spatial perspective employed. The most striking flaw, however, is the verbose nature of this comic book," Bali's leading comic book creator Wayan Gunasta said.
Despite those flaws, Gunasta, who has published quite a successful comic book series based on a local adaptation of the Hindu epic, the Mahabharata, commended the comic book as the first of its kind.
"Previously, local comic books were generally based on Hindu epics and mythology or local legend and folklore. Lebur Ring Klungkung is the first comic on the historic event of Dutch colonization. We must support this initiative," he said.
Mas Ruscitadewi said that production of the second comic book, this time on the historic Puputan Jagaraga, was currently in progress.