The History of Denpasar : The Capital City Of Bali
People around the world may know that Denpasar is the capital city of Bali. Along ago Denpasar was a park. But not commonly park, it is King of Badung’s favorite park, Kyai Jambe Ksatria. Kyai Jambe Ksatria lived in Puri Jambe Ksatria, now known as Satria Market. This park quite unique, because there is a cockfighting place, the hobby of Kyai Ksatria. He often invited the other king in Bali to play cockfighting.
Historian said, the park more like a resting villa for the king. Denpasar comes from the word ‘den’ that means north and ‘Pasar’ mean market. People gave this name because it located in the north market. Now, this park becomes Jaya Sabha, the house for governor. In 1788 Denpasar was inaugurated as a city. The formation of this city underwent a long process, even since the island of Bali was still inhabited by kingdoms.
In mid 19th, the Dutch take control of northern Bali, their administrative capital is in The northern town of Singaraja.
Earlier, Denpasar is the capital of the Badung Kingdom. The royal palace was ransacked by Dutch in 1906, thousand Balinese included the King decided to destroy their own palace by committed suicide instead of surrendering to the troops. Nowadays if we look at the statue in Denpasar central square, it is memorializing the sad events.
After WWII Dutch move their administrative capital to Denpasar because of the new Airport. Some years later after Indonesian independence in 1958, Denpasar officially became the capital of the province of Bali.
