The year was 1839. The Dutch had not yet succeeded in penetrating
the fertile rice-growing districts of southern Bali where
a glorious and carefully guarded Hindu theater state had flourished
undisturbed for a thousand years. In that year, after he had
been run off the neighboring island of Lombok by an English
rival, the flamboyant Danish merchant-adventurer Mads Johansen
Lange (1805-1856) set up a fortified “factory”
(trading post) on Bali’s southern peninsula near the
fishing village of Kuta.
The Balinese were eager for trade contacts, but at the time
foreigners were strictly confined to the edge of the island
in places like Kuta, a political Freeport and no man’s
land where social outcasts and political opponents could find
refuge. Lange’s busy emporium soon became a vital link
between inter-Asian trade and the inland Balinese economy.
Although his sojourn on Bali lasted only 10 years, his presence
here was to change Balinese history.
Although a few Chinese and Buginese monsoon traders had settled
near the main harbors of the island in the 19th century, mostly
serving as intermediaries in the slave trade, Mads Lange established
the first large trading post. Surrounded by an imposing wall
with an elaborate gateway, the huge complex contained warehouses,
a pasar, comfortable residences, and an open dining pavilion
with a billiard table where foreign guests – merchants,
ship captains, early tourists, Indologists, botanists, linguists
– were sumptuously entertained. Lange lived there with
his Chinese and Balinese concubines, his Dalmation dogs, and
a large retinue of servants.
In the evenings cosmopolitan parties were held from where
the Kuta villagers could hear Danish folk music and bawdy
songs sung and played by Lange and his fiends on flutes, violins
and a piano. Half the races of Europe were represented at
the trader’s hospitable table. The Balinese gentry,
sarunged and parasoled, were also often invited to the gay
soirées and treated with the utmost deference. Relations
with the dirt-poor Kuta villagers, however, were not as cordial.
Once, when one of Lange’s servants struck a Balinese,
his factory was surrounded by a howling mob who threatened
to burn it to the ground. Deftly, the trader bought the peace
with 200 guilders and two balls of opium.
Lange himself came to play a crucial role in early colonial
expansion. He fell under the protection of the highest-ranking
raja of south Bali, Gusti Ngurah Gede Kesiman of Badung, who
made Lange a perbekel (district official). Not only was he
a powerful commercial broker who gained great profits from
trade, but Lange also served as an indispensable link between
the Dutch and southern Balinese rulers, at one point averting
a bloody clash between opposing armies by dramatically riding
out to meet the Dutch troops marching inland from Padangbai.
Able to maintain numerous personal relationships with the
quarrelsome Balinese princes the Dane was appointed Dutch
agent and official middleman. He served as a channel of information
between the vastly different worlds of East and West, solving
most problems by simply buying protection and goodwill. Lange
was also an adept mediator between conflicting parties, acting
as a human buffer and diplomat between Dutch colonial interests
and internal Balinese court politics. To avoid conflicts between
oafish Europeans and the Balinese natives, no one but Lange
and his brother Hans were allowed into the island’s
interior.
Because of new technology and commercial pressure the fortunes
of his factory soon began to decline. With the launching of
several large scale military expeditions by the Dutch against
Bali in 1846, 1848 and 1849, Lange’s world came tumbling
down, leaving him broken hearted. The Dutch naval blockade
of Bali (1848-49) and the continual warfare of the 1840s had
seriously disrupted trade. The rice growing hinterlands had
suffered the ravages of war and a plague of rats, while accompanying
small pox epidemics and water shortages contributed to the
chaos. In addition, Kuta harbor was inadequate for the steamships
which were used increasingly after 1850 in the inter-Asiatic
trade. Finally, new commercial rivals entered the picture
when the northern harbor of Buleleng and Ampenan on Lombok
began to attract the bulk of Balinese exports. All these factors
conspired to cause Lange losses from which he never recovered.
It was said of him that there was more of the bold Viking
than the prudent trader in his nature. He was soon put out
of business.
Bankrupt and dispirited, Lange died mysteriously in 1856 just
before he was to return to Denmark. Historians believe he
may have been poisoned by a member of a competing Balinese
dynastic group seeking revenge. His brother and nephew tried
in vain to continue the factory, but Raja Kesiman’s
death in 1863 left the establishment completely vulnerable.
After several years nothing remained of the once-prosperous
compound except for high crumbling stone walls.
Remnants of the compound survived into the 1950s but today
all has vanished. Today, Lange’s grave can be found
– after persistent inquiries – tucked away behind
the big SURF FACTORY OUTLET sign on the left on Jl. Bypass
about 1.5 km north of the airport. Walk 200 m down the narrow
winding alleyway towards the river. The grave sits in a small
yard and offerings can still be seen at its base. Besides
the gravesite, descendents of his Dalmations are the only
other physical traces left of this Dane’s remarkable
mercantile adventure on Bali. A small ceremony, attended by
representatives from Malaysia, Singapore, Brazil and Denmark,
was held on September 18th, 2007 to mark the 200th anniversary
of his birth.
