But in the 1920s and 1930s, when an elite class of Western travelers discovered Bali, all this bloodiness was ignored as the newcomers agreed that this was truly "The Island of the Gods," where "everyone is an artist" and where humanity lives in an unspoiled state of bliss. It's been a lingering idea, this dream; most visitors to Bali (myself on my first trip included) still endorse it. "I was furious at God that I was not born Balinese," said the German photographer George Krauser after visiting Bali in the 1930s. Lured by reports of otherworldly beauty and serenity, some really A-list tourists started visiting the island—artists like Walter Spies, writers like No?l Coward, dancers like Claire Holt, actors like Charlie Chaplin, scholars like Margaret Mead (who, despite all the naked breasts, wisely called Balinese civilization on what it truly was, a society as prim as Victorian England: "Not an ounce of free libido in the whole cul-ture.")
然而在二十世纪二三十年代，一群精英阶级的西方旅人发现巴厘岛，这些新来者不理会血腥历史，他们认为此地果真是"诸神之岛""人人皆是艺术家"，人类过着完美的喜乐生活之地。此一梦想依然久留不去；造访巴厘岛的人（包括我第一次来的时候）依然予以赞同。"我气上帝让我生来不是巴厘岛人。"德国摄影家克劳萨（George Krauser）在20世纪30年代探访巴厘岛后说道。一些顶级游客为超凡之美与宁静宜人的报导所诱惑，开始造访这座岛——史毕斯（Walter Spies）等艺术家；克华德（Noei Coward）等作家；荷特（Claire Holt）等舞蹈家；卓别林等演员；米德（尽管这儿有许多袒露的胸脯，她却明智地点出巴厘岛社会和维多利亚时代的英国一样古板："整个文化没有一点自由性欲"）等学者。

The party ended in the 1940s when the world went to war. The Japanese invaded Indone-sia, and the blissful expatriates in their Balinese gardens with their pretty houseboys were forced to flee. In the struggle for Indonesian independence which followed the war, Bali be-came just as divided and violent as the rest of the archipelago, and by the 1950s (reports a study called Bali: Paradise Invented) if a Westerner dared visit Bali at all, he might have been wise to sleep with a gun under his pillow. In the 1960s, the struggle for power turned all of In-donesia into a battlefield between Nationalists and Communists. After a coup attempt in Jakarta in 1965, Nationalist soldiers were sent to Bali with the names of every suspected Communist on the island. Over the course of about a week, aided by the local police and vil-lage authorities at every step, the Nationalist forces steadily murdered their way through every township. Something like 100,000 corpses choked the beautiful rivers of Bali when the killing spree was over.
20世纪40年代的世界大战期间，好日子结束。日本人入侵印尼，居住在巴厘花园、雇用俊俏家仆的幸福外国人被迫逃离。战后，印尼争取独立期间，巴厘岛和群岛各地一样愈来愈分化，变得愈来愈暴力，到了20世纪50年代（据一份称为《巴厘岛：虚构的天堂》的研究报导），哪个西方人敢于造访巴厘岛，睡觉时枕头下最好搁把枪。20世纪60年代，权力斗争让全印尼变成国民军与共产党人之间的战场。经过1965年企图在雅加达发动政变过后，国民军进驻巴厘岛，手中带着岛上有共产党嫌疑的一串名单。在一个礼拜内，在当地警察及村落官方的一步步协助下，国民军在每个镇上一路屠杀。当疯狂杀戮结束时，十万具尸体堵塞了巴厘岛的秀美河川。