The Rape of Sukreni

Violence, money, and melodrama-these are the volatile ingredients of The Rape of Sukreni. Written in the 1930s by A.A. Panji Tisna, a prince of the Balinese state of Buleleng, the novel is the author's best-known work and is still in print today.

Sukreni is a modern Indonesian classic that draws on the melodramatic conventions of Balinese theater to present a powerful indictment of the commercialization of Balinese society. While on one level the novel appears to be concerned with the Balinese-Hindu notion of karma, its main thematic thrust is in fact the impact of modern commerce on Balinese society. Modern commerce, the author argues, is animated by a morality which robs people of their humanity. In Balinese society an inhuman commercial ethic is turning people against all that is good and refined in themselves and their society.

Even more telling today than it was when it was written, The Rape of Sukreni offers a unique and dark insider's view of the island's future that violently challenges the conventional image of Bali as a honeyed paradise filled with artists and happy tourists.