In Reply to: question posted by anada on Wednesday, 18. June 2008 at 23:45 Bali Time:
Don't recognize any local stories in this, but then again, I don't know all there is to know. I do know that Bowie sometimes becomes fascinated by certain words purely on sound value. Perhaps this time it was Amlapura. In the time that he sings about, the days of windjammers and tall ships, no-one would have heard of the name Amlapura; that's a much more recent invention. Previously the city was known as Karengasem, and most Balinese still use that name. The 'boogies' were the sea-rovers, the Boughinese. The word Buccaneer is derived from that. They were much feared and generally thought of as pirates. Most likely they were just trying to make a (honest?) living. Sorry I can't be of any more help. Must bash off now.