Narmada Water Can you feel the power? Taman Narmada, Lombok In 1874,The kingdom of Buleleng, North Bali Conquered East Bali and the Karangasam royal family moved to Lombok where they set up a court in exile with thier cousins. The next 50 yeras during which the family shuffled back and forth across the straight, was the renaissance period for West Lombok, no doubt due to the presence of 2 great Raja-architects. The Raja Lombok of this period, Anak Agung Gede Ngurah Karangasam, desired a summer palace in the cool hill lands above Cakranegara. Influenced by the rich Dutch merchants and thier tales of great palaces of Europe, the Raja set out to to designing a complex of arbours ,imitation lakes, fountain ponds, rotunda and mad-made hills topped with temples. The New palace was called Taman Narmada. Unable to make the anual trip to Mt Rinjanis lake to supervise the offering of animal sacrifices into the crater lake, he built a scale replica of the holy lake within the palace grounds, into the waters of which the Raja,s party would throw golden animal animal effigies at the same time as the annual ceremony. 'King Anak Agung Lingsit fathered the first of his 5 children at 70 years of age after returning to Narmada'. Lomboks most famous Raja ruled from Taman Narmada until, in 1894 he was exiled by the Dutch to Batavia ( Jakarta ) where he died. His son, the heir to the throne was held in Batavia for some 50 years before returning to Cakranegara in the early throws of the independance movement. 70 years old with a long white beard, the ascertic King had become something of a legend in Batavia and people were amazed when on his return to lombok, he married for the first time and fathered 5 children. It is probable that some restorations were carried out at Namada and Mayura either by the returning Raja Lomok or by the Raja Karangasam, at about the time the Karangasam water gardens were built in Bali. Undoubtedly the greatest landscape feasts of the last 300 Bali - Lombok years the Taman Narmada and the Taman Mayura are an instant journey back into the days of the rajas. M. Wijaya home story < clean water halal