Based on the legend, a strategy of maintaining a sanitized ‘living museum’ of Hindu-Balinese culture emerged. The germ of the idea was in place as early as 1902, when Henri Hubert van Kol, a reform- minded member of the Dutch parliament, visited Gianyar and observed the very first Dutch administrator in the south at work.
In a book entitled From Our Colonies he wrote:
“We grant the radja self-rule and we permit the people to observe their ancient laws and customs. We remove abuses and those which remain, will yet disappear. The rule of the radja replaces that of the punggawa [district rulers] who are concerned only with their private satisfactions. The position of the once powerful punggawa is now reduced, as it should be, to that of the servant of the radja, under our watchful supervision…We have brough law and order