History introduced to children through comics

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.