Ngurah Rai was born in Desa Carangsari, Kabupaten Badung,
Bali on 30 January 1917. He studied at a Dutch Marga elementary school. He then
went to high school in Malang, East Java. After high school, he received Dutch
military training at the Military Cadet School in Gianyar, Bali and Magelang,
Central Java. He graduated from military training and joined the Dutch
sponsored military as a second lieutenant in Bali.
After the Indonesia Declaration of Independence, the Colonel
established the People’s Security Army, the forerunner of the Military of
Indonesia for the Lesser Sunda Islands. He then left for the republican capital,
Yogyakarta, to receive orders before returning to Bali to oppose the
approximately 2,000 Dutch troops that had landed in March, 1946. Ngurah Rai
found that the republican forces were divided thus he worked hard to reunite
them before organizing the first attack against the Dutch forces headquarters
at Tabanan.
The Dutch located Ngurah Rai’s base and offered negotiation,
but the Colonel refused. On 20 November 1946, the Dutch launched a large scale
attack on Marga with the assistance of troops and aircraft forces from Lombok.
Lt. Col Ngurah Rai ordered a puputan, or fight to the death.
He died along with all of his troops in the fight, now known as The Battle of
Margarana. Ngurah Rai was buried in Marga.
On 9 August 1975, by a Presidential Decision, I Gusti Ngurah
Rai was declared a national hero, Bali’s Ngurah Rai’s Airport is named for him.