puputan

Etymology

From Balinese puputan.

puputan means A suicidal march towards an enemy as carried out by the aristocracy or ruling class of a Balinese kingdom. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 82 out of 100.

Why this word is great

PUPUTAN — [Noun] A ritualized, collective march to the death undertaken by Balinese royalty and their followers when facing certain defeat. From Balinese *puputan*, from the root *puput* ('to end, finish, die'), denoting a final or conclusive act. Unlike *seppuku*—a solitary, interior ritual of self-disembowelment—or a *last stand*—a tactical martial effort clinging to a hope of reprieve—a *puputan* is a public, processional ceremony of communal extinction. It is the glint of ceremonial kris daggers raised in invitation, the white garb of purity stained with dust and gunpowder, and the silent, ordered advance into a waiting hail of bullets—a deliberate, aestheticized closing of a world. The act proves that how one ends can be the ultimate assertion of sovereignty, a final composition against the chaos of conquest.

noun

A suicidal march towards an enemy as carried out by the aristocracy or ruling class of a Balinese kingdom.“According to their own records, the Dutch believed that the royal family had determined upon a fight to the death—another puputan—which left them with no alternative but all-out assault.”