Most of Klungkung was destroyed during the war with the Dutch, but the gardens and a few buildings from the royal palace survive. The water gardens are quite peaceful, and there are a few buildings from the original 1710 construction with interesting ceiling paintings on them. One of them is covered with nasty torture scenes, and served as the criminal court. The other building was used for the all-important tooth filing ceremony. The Balinese have about 50 life ceremonies that are held for special occassions and require huge village celebrations. This is one of the more important, and takes place sometime between puberty and marriage. The basic idea is the victim gets the points filed off the fanglike teeth whose name I learned once but have long forgotten (incisors?). You know the ones that make us all look a bit werewolfy. Well, the Balinese chop that off, which is supposed to eliminate our animal natures and make us more civilized. So this building is where members of the royal family got their teeth filed, to get back to the main narrative.

We also visited Klungkung, the district capital and royal seat for what used to be a kingdom controlling much of east Bali, i.e. not much. The kingdom was originally based in Gelgel, peaked in the 1400's, and went through the usual decline and civil war. In the 1600's the king decided the decline was due to a curse on the royal palace, so he uprooted and moved the seat of government to Klungkung. That merely saddled the kingdom with a huge construction bill and the decline intensified. When the Dutch invaded Bali in 1906, Klungkung was the last kingdom to fall. I assume that's due to its remoteness, because their battle plan leaves much to be desired. When the Dutch army showed up outside the city, the entire royal family and court, some two hundred people, marched unarmed toward the army until they all died in a hail of bullets.