《美食祈禱和戀愛》Chapter 80 (182):巴厘島的歷史

But in the 1920s and 1930s, when an elite class of Western travelers discovered Bali, all this bloodiness was ignored as the newcomers agreed that this was truly "The Island of the Gods," where "everyone is an artist" and where humanity lives in an unspoiled state of bliss. It's been a lingering idea, this dream; most visitors to Bali (myself on my first trip included) still endorse it. "I was furious at God that I was not born Balinese," said the German photographer George Krauser after visiting Bali in the 1930s. Lured by reports of otherworldly beauty and serenity, some really A-list tourists started visiting the island—artists like Walter Spies, writers like No?l Coward, dancers like Claire Holt, actors like Charlie Chaplin, scholars like Margaret Mead (who, despite all the naked breasts, wisely called Balinese civilization on what it truly was, a society as prim as Victorian England: "Not an ounce of free libido in the whole cul-ture.")

然而在二十世紀二三十年代，一羣精英階級的西方旅人發現巴厘島，這些新來者不理會血腥歷史，他們認爲此地果真是"諸神之島""人人皆是藝術家"，人類過着完美的喜樂生活之地。此一夢想依然久留不去；造訪巴厘島的人（包括我第一次來的時候）依然予以贊同。"我氣上帝讓我生來不是巴厘島人。"德國攝影家克勞薩（George Krauser）在20世紀30年代探訪巴厘島後說道。一些頂級遊客爲超凡之美與寧靜宜人的報導所誘惑，開始造訪這座島——史畢斯（Walter Spies）等藝術家；克華德（Noei Coward）等作家；荷特（Claire Holt）等舞蹈家；卓別林等演員；米德（儘管這兒有許多袒露的胸脯，她卻明智地點出巴厘島社會和維多利亞時代的英國一樣古板："整個文化沒有一點自由性慾"）等學者。

The party ended in the 1940s when the world went to war. The Japanese invaded Indone-sia, and the blissful expatriates in their Balinese gardens with their pretty houseboys were forced to flee. In the struggle for Indonesian independence which followed the war, Bali be-came just as divided and violent as the rest of the archipelago, and by the 1950s (reports a study called Bali: Paradise Invented) if a Westerner dared visit Bali at all, he might have been wise to sleep with a gun under his pillow. In the 1960s, the struggle for power turned all of In-donesia into a battlefield between Nationalists and Communists. After a coup attempt in Jakarta in 1965, Nationalist soldiers were sent to Bali with the names of every suspected Communist on the island. Over the course of about a week, aided by the local police and vil-lage authorities at every step, the Nationalist forces steadily murdered their way through every township. Something like 100,000 corpses choked the beautiful rivers of Bali when the killing spree was over.

20世紀40年代的世界大戰期間，好日子結束。日本人入侵印尼，居住在巴釐花園、僱用俊俏家僕的幸福外國人被迫逃離。戰後，印尼爭取獨立期間，巴厘島和羣島各地一樣愈來愈分化，變得愈來愈暴力，到了20世紀50年代（據一份稱爲《巴厘島：虛構的天堂》的研究報導），哪個西方人敢於造訪巴厘島，睡覺時枕頭下最好擱把槍。20世紀60年代，權力鬥爭讓全印尼變成國民軍與共產黨人之間的戰場。經過1965年企圖在雅加達發動政變過後，國民軍進駐巴厘島，手中帶着島上有共產黨嫌疑的一串名單。在一個禮拜內，在當地警察及村落官方的一步步協助下，國民軍在每個鎮上一路屠殺。當瘋狂殺戮結束時，十萬具屍體堵塞了巴厘島的秀美河川。