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Denpasar is the capital and largest city of the province of Bali in Indonesia, on the south coast of the island, and it is famous for the Bali Museum, the Bajra Sandhi Monument, its Hindu temples and the calm sunrise beach of Sanur. About 670,000 people lived in the city at the end of 2024.
The name comes from the Balinese words den, north, and pasar, market, after the market town that grew up where Kumbasari Market stands today. In the 18th and 19th centuries Denpasar was the seat of the kingdom of Badung. In September 1906 the king and his court walked out of their palace into Dutch gunfire in the Badung Puputan, and the palace was razed.
Denpasar became the seat of government of Bali in 1958 and a city in its own right in 1992. Today it is the main gateway and business centre of the island, and its Sanur district was the first beach resort in Bali. Visitors come for the museums and monuments, the red-brick Pura Maospahit, the Belanjong pillar of 914, the turtles and temple of Serangan Island, the Bali Arts Festival and the giant kites of July.
Pura Jagatnatha in Denpasar is the most important Hindu temple of the city, standing just south of the Bali Museum by Puputan Square. Its tall padmasana shrine is crowned with an empty throne for Ida Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa, the supreme god of Balinese Hindu belief, as a symbol of the universe.
Pura Maospahit in Denpasar is a temple of bare red brick in the style of the old Majapahit kingdom of Java. Its main shrine, the Candi Raras Maospahit, dates from 1278, and it is the only temple in Bali laid out in five courtyards with the holiest one at the centre.
Pura Dalem Sakenan in Denpasar stands on the shore of Serangan Island and is said to have been founded in the 10th century by the high priest Mpu Kuturan. Every 210 days its Piodalan festival brings crowds of pilgrims, who once crossed the mangroves on foot or in colourful jukung boats.
The Belanjong pillar in Denpasar was set up at Sanur in 914 by King Sri Kesari Warmadewa, and its inscription in Sanskrit and Old Balinese tells of his military campaigns. Found only in 1932, it still stands where it was discovered, in a small temple under a protective enclosure.
The Bali Museum in Denpasar was built in 1931 on the east side of Puputan Square, with walls and courtyards modelled on a Balinese palace by the architect P.J. Moojen. Its four pavilions hold masks and musical instruments, sculpture and paintings, textiles and archaeological finds.
The Bajra Sandhi Monument in Denpasar honours the struggles of the Balinese people and rises 45 metres in Renon Field, shaped like the bell of a Hindu priest. Inside, 33 dioramas tell the story of Bali from prehistory to independence, arranged clockwise in the order of the events.
The Puputan Badung Monument in Denpasar is a large bronze memorial on Puputan Square, where the royal palace of Badung stood until 1906. It remembers the king and about 1,000 followers who walked into Dutch gunfire rather than surrender, and the square around it is now a green park.
The Le Mayeur Museum in Denpasar is the seafront house at Sanur of the Belgian painter Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur, who came to Bali around 1932. It shows about 88 of his paintings on canvas, board and sacking with his Balinese art, and it became a museum after a minister visited in 1956.
Sanur Beach in Denpasar is the oldest beach resort in Bali, known as the sunrise beach for its views east over calm water that suits sunbathing and kitesurfing. A long seaside path runs south past Sindu, Karang and Semawang beaches, and the Dutch army landed here in 1906.
Serangan Island in Denpasar is a small island 2.9 kilometres long just south of the city, joined to Bali by a road bridge since its reclamation in 1996. It is known above all for its sea turtles and for Pura Dalem Sakenan, one of the six most sacred temples of Bali.
Taman Werdhi Budaya Art Centre in Denpasar is a five-hectare arts complex with an open-air theatre, an indoor theatre, exhibition halls, a library of Balinese history and a temple. It stages traditional dance, music and drama, and is the main venue of the Bali Arts Festival.
The Bali Kite Festival in Denpasar fills the sky over Padang Galak near Sanur every July with giant traditional kites almost 10 metres long. Teams of 70 to 80 people from the villages of the city fly fish, bird and leaf-shaped kites to gamelan music, as thanks to the gods for the harvest.
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