Ida Cokorde Made, the brave king

Ida Cokorde Made, the brave king

I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Bali

I Gusti Ngurah Made Agung, fondly known as Cokorde Made, was only
26 years old when he was crowned as the king of Badung, and only
30 years old when he led his royal relatives and soldiers of the
house of Denpasar in a charge against a rain of bullets from
Dutch soldiers' rifles in the historic assault that put an end to
his brief mortal life. This, on the other hand, bestowed upon him
an immortal status in the Balinese people's collective memory and
history.

"The fact that he was so young made his decision to stage the
Puputan (battle), instead of capitulating to an evil yet powerful
foreign power, more exceptional. He could have surrendered and
led a comfortable life as a puppet of the Dutch, but he
deliberately chose death, a noble one I might add, and we are
very proud of that," said a descendant of the royal house of
Denpasar Anak Agung Sagung Mas Ruscitadewi.

Ruscitadewi is not the only person, who has been awed by the
personality of the last king of Badung. For years, Ida Cokorde
Mantuk Ring Rana's -- the name bestowed upon him by the Badung
people -- character has evoked a deep sense of respect,
admiration, and melancholy among the people of Denpasar,
particularly among scholars, religious leaders, and historians.

"The reason for the admiration is due to his courage. Cokorde
Made was, and still is, the ideal manifestation of Balinese
nobility, a warrior and a man; the kind of a person who willingly
sacrificed everything he had -- power, prestige, wealth, and even
his life -- for the greater and nobler principles of freedom,
duty, love for the motherland, and spiritual enlightenment. Every
Balinese yearns to have that kind of courage, and aspire to be
like Cokorde Made," cultural observer I Ketut Sumarta said.

Born in Denpasar Palace on April 5, 1876, Cokorde Made was the
son of then king of Badung I Gusti Ngurah Pemecutan. In 1902,
after the death of his older brother I Gusti Gede Ngurah
Denpasar, Cokorde Made was installed as the ruler of Badung, a
kingdom, the territory of which was roughly equivalent to the
present day Denpasar city and Badung regency.

From his early years as a royal prince, Cokorde Made was an
avid reader of traditional literary works, religious manuscripts
and philosophical treatises. He spent a lot of time in the palace
library of Bale Saraswati in the company of a noted young poet
Ida Bagus Made Sidemen, who later became Ida Pedanda Made
Sidemen, arguably Bali's most enlightened Brahmin high priest in
the 20th century.

Cokorde Made was also an accomplished poet in traditional
Balinese lyrical verses of Geguritan and Kidung. His literary
works include Geguritan Niti Raja Sesana, Geguritan Dharma
Sasana, Geguritan Hredayasastra, Geguritan I Nengah Jimbaran,
Geguritan Samba, Kidung Lodha, Kakawin Atlas, and Geguritan Purwa
Sanghara.

"That this young king was an avid reader, who was very
familiar with numerous classical literary texts, could be seen
from his own works. Geguritan Dharma Sasana, for instance, which
depicted the ethics a truth-seeker must possess, was composed
based on Prasadaniti, Bhismaparwa, Wretasancaya, Wrastisasana,
Krirtipandawa, Bangbungalan, Slokantara, Sarasamuccaya,
Bargawasiksa, Nitisastra, and several other classical texts," an
authority on Balinese classical literary texts Ida Bagus Gede
Agastya said.

Those works, he added, also provided a glimpse into Cokorde
Made's way of thinking, particularly on how a king must rule and,
most importantly, on death.

In Geguritan Niti Raja Sasana Cokorde Made outlines the ethics
a king must observe in leading his kingdom to prosperity and
peace. On ethics on the battlefield, Cokorde Made described nine
noble virtues a king should try to emulate. Those virtues involve
the principle of no surrender and end with the death of the king
in battle. One of those virtuous action was called Bamamaharata,
in which a king bravely fights the battle and dies along with his
people.

"Cokorde Made also clearly pointed out that a king, who runs
from the battlefield for fear of his own life, or surrenders, had
committed an atrocious and unethical deed," Agastya said.

In Geguritan Dharma Sasana, Cokorde Made states that sarining
kapatian (the essence of death) was what seekers of truth and
wise men actually searched for in their life. Sarining kapatian
is both the beginning and the substance of everything in the
world, he said.

"According to Cokorde Made those who completely comprehend
spiritual teachings will possess a clear perspective, serene
mind, utmost confidence, and most importantly, they will grasp
the meaning of mati tan tumut pejah (deathless death)," said
Agastya.

"Cokorde Made wrote tingkah manone ring awak (the Supreme
Being resides within ourselves), ada matukul ring ati (constantly
enlightening the heart) and mati tan tumut pejah (death is
actually not death). This mati tan tumut pejah (deathless death),
I believe is the cornerstone of Cokorde Made's belief system. It
is impossible to comprehend his decision to stage a Puputan
without taking this mati tan tumut pejah concept into
consideration," said Ketut Sumarta.

For years, many foreign scholars, and, sadly, a small number
of Balinese people, have misunderstood Puputan Badung either as a
suicidal battle conducted in hysteria by desperate people or a
pointless and useless battle strategy employed by a king, who had
no respect for the sacredness of human life.

"It was not a suicide in the sense of frustrated people
frantically embracing death as a way to end their misery.
Instead, taking the mati tan tumut pejah concept into
consideration, Puputan was about people conducting a spiritual
journey; looking for life, true immortality. And this immortal
life can only be attained by casting away all attachments,
including the attachment to this transient mortal life,"
Ruscitadewi said.

Puputan Badung was proof that Cokorde Made stayed true to his
literary works' ideals of a true king, of a ruler who
courageously died in defending his land, of a leader deeply loved
by his people, such that the people, of their own accord,
willingly joined him in the battle.

It was also the fulfillment of his life-long spiritual quest
for the noble death of mati tan tumut pejah.

"He knew beforehand the days of his kingdom were numbered. He
was no ordinary king, he was also a poet, and a spiritual
practitioner," said aged religious figure Ngurah Oka Supartha,
referring to the last literary work of Cokorde Made, Geguritan
Purwa Sanghara.

Known as the greatest among Cokorde Made's works, the
prophetic Purwa Sanghara (literally meaning the Dawning of the
Devastation) depicted the tragic and violent end of the ancient
Yadawa kingdom and the people of Yadu. It also contained a
section describing Sutasoma, a great prince who earnestly
sacrificed his life so others might survive. Cokorde Made
completed Purwa Sanghara in March, 1905.

"At that time various omens had taken place, giving the people
of Badung some sort of premonition of the impending disaster.
Several sections of the kingdom's main spiritual center, the
Uluwatu temple, collapsed. Mount Batur, the throne of the goddess
Dewi Danuh, the spiritual protector of Badung kingdom, erupted on
March 1905. Many people witnessed the passing of a comet in the
skies of Badung, an omen of an imminent bloodbath or the changing
of the ruling power. Cokorde Made completely understood all these
sipta (spiritual signs), and he composed Purwa Sanghara, at the
end of a kingdom," Ngurah Oka Supartha stressed.

The end of the kingdom came about some 18 months after the
completion of Purwa Sanghara. On that fateful day of Sept. 20,
1906, right at high noon, Cokorde Made, dressed in white, led the
charge into hundreds of Dutch soldiers, with firearms cocked and
ready to fire.

Dozens of meters from the soldiers, he threw away his two kris
daggers, Jalak Kedingding and I Singapraga, performed the sacred
mudra hand gestures before entering a state of samadhi right
before a hail of bullets.

When the young king fell, his mortal life ended, but his
immortality had just begun. He was mati tan tumut pejah.