The Legend Of Singaraja

Folklore from Bali

SRI Sagening was the king of Klungkung Kingdom, Bali. He had a lot of wives. His last wife was Ni Luh Pasek. She was the most beautiful wife and that made the other wives were jealous. They often told bad things to the king. Sadly, the king was influenced and he finally asked Ni Luh Pasek to leave the palace. Ni Luh Pasek was very sad, but she had no other choice. She became very sad when she knew that she was pregnant! Ni Luh Pasek arrived at a village. An old man felt very sorry with her condition. His name was Jelantik Bogol. He was a holy man and had supernatural power. He married Ni Luh Pasek. And when the baby was born, Jelantik Bogol named him I Gusti Gede. He loved I gusti Gede just like his own son.


I Gusti Gede grew as a strong man. He also mastered a lot of skills such as martial arts and supernatural power. His step father taught him the skills. One day his step father asked him to go to a jungle in Den Hill. It was the place Ni Luh Pasek was born. Jelantik Bogol asked him to go there to get more supernatural power. Before he left, his step father gave him two weapons, a spear and a keris, it's a traditional wavy double-bladed dagger. I Gusti Gede did it. He went to the Den Hill and meditated. While he was meditating, a spirit of the jungle came to him. The spirit spoke to him."You will be a great king. Go to Panumbang beach, help the people there."

I Gusti Gede continued his journey. When he arrived at Panombangan Beach, there was an incident. There was a ship from Bugis sinking at the beach. The people had tried to help, but they did not succeed.

I Gusti Gede wanted to help. He asked the people to stay away from the ship. He prayed and took out hos weapons. Suddenly, two big spirits came out of the spear and the keris.

I Gusti Gede asked the spirits to pull the sinking ships back to sea. The people could not see the spirits. They only saw I Gusti Gede moving his hands. The spirits slowly pulled the ship. In just a minute, a ship just back in the sea. The owner was very happy. He gave some of his wealth to I Gusti Gede. People were amazed with his power. they named him as I Gusti Panji Sakti.

I Gusti Panji Sakti went back to Den Hill. He started to build a village. People came one by one. I Gusti panji Sakti protected them from bad people. Slowly the village became a kingdom. I Gusti Panji Sakti became the king and he named the kingdom as Sukasada.

sukasada became a big kigdom, I Gusti Panji Sakti planned to make another kingdom. He opened up a new area. It was full of buleleng trees. Therefore he named the kingdom as Buleleng Kingdom.

He also build a great palace. People named it Singaraja. Singa means lion and Raja means king. With his power I Gusti Panji Sakti was like a lion. He always protected his people from bad people. While he became a king, Buleleng Kingdom was safe and prosperous.

The Rabbit and the Turtle

One day a rabbit was boasting about how fast he could run. He was laughing at the turtle for being so slow. Much to the rabbit’s surprise, the turtle challenged him to a race. The rabbit thought this was a good joke and accepted the challenge. The fox was to be the umpire of the race. As the race began, the rabbit raced way ahead of the turtle, just like everyone thought. The rabbit got to the halfway point and could not see the turtle anywhere. He was hot and tired and decided to stop and take a short nap. Even if the turtle passed him, he would be able to race to the finish line ahead of him. All this time the turtle kept walking step by step by step. He never quit no matter how hot or tired he got. He just kept going.

However, the rabbit slept longer than he had thought and woke up. He could not see the turtle anywhere! He went at full-speed to the finish line but found the turtle there waiting for him.