On 14 September 1906, a substantial force of the
Royal Dutch East Indies Army, named the
Sixth Military Expedition, landed at the northern part of
Sanur Beach. It was under the command of Major General
M.B. Rost van Tonningen. Badung soldiers made some attacks on the bivouacs of the Dutch at Sanur on September 15, and there was some resistance again at Intaran village.
Kesiman Overall, the force managed to move inland without much resistance, and arrived in the city of
Kesiman on 20 September 1906. There, the local king, a vassal of the king of
Badung, had already been killed by his priest, as he had refused to lead an armed resistance against the Dutch. The palace was in flames and the city was deserted.
Denpasar The force marched to
Denpasar,
Bali, as if in a dress parade. They approached the royal palace, noting smoke rising from the
puri and hearing a wild beating of drums coming from within the palace walls. Upon their reaching the palace, a silent procession emerged, led by the
Raja on a
palanquin carried by four bearers. The Raja was dressed in traditional white cremation garments, wore magnificent jewelry, and carried a ceremonial
kris. The other people in the procession consisted of the Raja's officials, guards, priests, wives, children, and retainers, all of whom were similarly attired. They had received the rites of death, were dressed in white, and had had their ritual
kris blessed. When the procession was a hundred paces from the Dutch force, they halted and the Raja stepped down from the palanquin and signaled a priest, who plunged his dagger into Raja's breast. The rest of the procession began killing themselves and others. Women mockingly threw jewelry and gold coins at the troops. A 'stray gunshot' and an 'attack by lance and spear' prompted the Dutch to open fire with
rifles and
artillery. As more people emerged from the palace, the mounds of corpses rose higher and higher. The whole procession numbered hundreds, and is said to have been over 1,000 people in all. It was mown down by Dutch gunfire. Alternative accounts describe that the Dutch first opened fire on the Balinese mass moving outside of the palace gate, only equipped with traditional krises, spears, and shields, and that survivors killed themselves, or had themselves killed by their followers according to the dictates of the
puputan. The soldiers stripped the corpses of the valuables and sacked the ruins of the burned palace. The palace of Denpasar was razed to the ground. The same afternoon, similar events occurred in the nearby palace of Pemecutan, where the co-ruler Gusti Gede Ngurah resided. The Dutch let the nobility at Pemecutan kill themselves, and proceeded with the looting. The massacre is remembered locally as the "Badung Puputan", as a symbol of resistance to foreign aggression. A huge bronze monument was erected on the central square of Denpasar, where the royal palace used to stand, commemorating Balinese resistance in the Puputan.
Tabanan The Dutch force continued to the kingdom of
Tabanan, where King
Gusti Ngurah Agung and his son fled. They surrendered to the Dutch, and attempted to negotiate a settlement to become a regency of the Netherlands. The Dutch only offered them exile to nearby
Madura or
Lombok, and they preferred to kill themselves (puputan) in prison two days later. Their palace was plundered and razed by the Dutch. ==1908==