Original subtitles

- The warrior Bhima

is tricked into a fool's errand.

- He seeks his parents in heaven.

They are not there.

Instead, he finds them in hell.

He offers his parents the elixir of life,

yet they refuse.

They accept the fruits of their karma.

This being their final test,

they ascend to heaven.

- The story of Bhima Swarga teaches us that heaven

and hell are allegories.

Not truths.

Life is cyclical, and so is death.

♪ I took a walk through this

♪ Beautiful world

♪ Felt the cool rain on my shoulder

♪ Found something good in this

♪ Beautiful world

♪ I felt the rain getting colder

♪ - La, la - Sha la, la, la, la

♪ Sha la, la, la, la

♪ - Sha la, la, la - Sha la, la, la, la

♪ Sha la, la, la, la, la

- The sign says "The Big Bang."

- Okay, so when the world was... - When the universe was created,

um, the universe is like an egg...

- Eggs. - That broke.

- Yes. - Okay?

- From the shell... - Yes.

- Is this fellow here. - He's called [indistinct].

- Yes. - From the yellow...

- Yes. - The yolk... The... the teacher...

Yes.

- The teacher. - And then they put

- the white... - And the white of the egg

is Semar.

- Semar? - Yes.

- Is to accompany the good.

So this is to accompany the bad, the demon.

This is to accompany the good.

- So the philosophy is, without this,

there is no this.

Without this, there is not this.

- There is no right without wrong.

There is no dark without light,

but each interconnects.

- Yes. - That is the main philosophy.

You know, the existence comes

from the same egg.

- For a thousand years, the Wayang...

Or shadow play... Has been entertainment

for both mortals and the gods.

In the shadow world,

everything has its opposites.

- At worth within every man are forces both divine

and animalistic.

- The philosophy of the shadow play

is to strive for balance.

You cannot kill the dominant animal urges within.

You must harness them,

yet not be controlled by them.

Shadows that manifest on-screen

are more than mere relief.

As they come alive, timeless tales

interspersed with subversive stories

bring the world of gods, monsters, and heroes

into sync with current social commentary.

- Indonesia is... - Correct me if I'm wrong...

It's the fourth largest country in the world.

- The fourth largest, but we are

the third largest democracy.

17,00 islands.

The majority of the population... 60%...

Live on Java.

- And how many people in Jakarta?

- Greater Jakarta, there's around 25 million.

- 25 million? - 25...

That's the greater area.

- What should the rest of the world know

about the fourth-largest country in the world

that they don't know?

Because, let's face it,

I think if you asked most people who are...

Who are gonna watch this show, "Tell me something

about Indonesia," you'll get a total blank.

- Indonesia, we are very, very diverse

because even before Islam came,

the locals, they had their own traditions.

They have their own culture.

- Tolerance... - The tolerance...

The tolerance, uh, the... The attitude of tolerance...

Religion tolerance... Uh, that drop in our country.

- Uh, the... the level of tolerance is declining.

- Yes, but in the food...

- Basically, food is a great unifier.

- Right. - You see?

- Especially in the... - You may speak poorly

of another region... "Oh, they're terrible people

over there, but their food is good."

- Yep. - They say that if

you really want to know and try every single dish

in Indonesia, you have to live here for 40 years.

- 40 years. - You need to stay here

for a long time, because every single area

has its own specialty.

Padang food... This is from West Sumatra.

If we talk about fast food, this is the fastest food.

I mean, this is way before

this genre of fast-foot exist in the world.

As you sit down, they come up with

all the dishes, and the concept is

you choose what you want to eat, and you only pay...

- Right. - For what you want to eat.

Here is... - It's lungs. - Fried lungs.

- Lung, lung. - Fried lungs.

- This is an intestine goulash,

and this... basically the skin.

- Deep fried fat and skin, yep.

Oh, I like that.

- Of course this is rendang.

We're very fond of our rendang.

And what makes Padang food very special

- is the spice. - Yes.

- The spice and the chili.

- So good.

- Yeah, you like rendang? - I do.

I could eat that all day.

So, I... I wanted to ask,

the traditional Indonesian shadow play...

how does one learn?

How did you, uh, learn your art?

- All shadow-puppet masters...

- Yes, it's all, you know, passed on from generation

- to generation. - So your father did this

as well.

And as I understand it, traditionally...

the puppet-master was allowed

a certain latitude to... tease, provoke,

or openly mock the powerful.

How far can you go?

- It's a bit like in the court jester...

- Right. - Where the court jesters

are expected...

you know, to make people laugh,

but at the same time it's an opportunity also

- to criticize... - Mm-hmm.

- Without getting... punished for it.

But at the same time, there is a philosophical level to it...

- Mm-hmm. - To make the people aware

- of certain dangers... - Aware that...

- Yeah, so to make the people aware that truth...

- Mm-hmm. - And wrong-doings is...

It's actually not black and white.

They interconnect.

- Watch the shadows, not the puppets.

The right in constant struggle

with the left.

- Forces of light and darkness

in an endless fight for supremacy.

Neither prevailing.

- What is good?

What is evil?

Who is the hero?

Who is the villain?

What is up or down?

Black or white?

What is right or wrong?

In shadow-play,

no such final conclusion exists.

- I think we have to wait for the music...

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

"Hey, a lot of foreigners.

Lot of... lot of money."

I think we're paying them

to not play music.

Yeah, right, right.

- So you teach here.

Uh, you were educated in the States?

- Yes, yeah. - I got my second full ride

when I was teaching as a Scholar-In-Residence

at the University of California.

- And your subject was the Nixon years.

- The... during that period. - Yeah, yeah.

After World War II.

- You are also a... - A man of the cloth.

A man of faith.

- Uh, so the right man to talk to.

We've been largely advised that...

We will make people uncomfortable

if we even discuss the year 1965.

The... the year

- of living dangerously. - The year

- of living dangerously. - Yeah.

What happened was, basically the Communists were accused

of launching a coup against the government,

and because of that there was kind of

a justification for killing people

who were suspected of being Communists.

- And who were they?

- They're just villagers or people who...

in a very bad way associated with

or connected with the Indonesian Communist Party.

- Right.

- Indonesia boasts one of the world's

most bizarre leaders.

Then, three weeks ago, the Communists staged a coup.

But it misfired, and the army struck back.

Michael Charlton reports.

- Indonesia's revolution is still fiercely on the boil

as the systematic round-up of Communists goes on.

- With its leaders either captured or killed,

the Communist force collapsed.

- The army led a hunt for party officials,

slaughtering the largest Communist party

- outside the Iron Curtain. - General Suharto

has taken advantage of the passion stirred

to try and swing public opinion hard against

their rivals.

The army now control all news and information.

- The actual number who were killed were between

half-a-million to one million.

And many more were imprisoned,

tortured, and things like that.

- Is it in the interests of, uh...

Uh, Indonesians to be fully aware

of what happened in '65?

Has Indonesia as a country reconciled itself

to those events?

- Is there eagerness to know?

Yes, there is.

There are people who... Many people.

At the same time, there was also fear.

So many people, they kept silent to...

avoid their family members being implicated.

So yes, there is a lot of eagerness,

but at the same time there a lot of fear.

- Yeah.

- And so the real political situation is...

- More complicated. - Yeah, more complicated.

- What about everyday life thrills you here?

You wake up in the morning and walk outside...

- Well, you cannot meet nicer people, Tony.

I mean everyone treats everyone else

with respect and kindness.

It's engrained in the culture here.

You just still see

certain things here that are just gone in other countries.

You know, you still have got people

grilling sauté on the street...

You've got people wheeling around

sort of wooden carts that have gone elsewhere.

At the same time, you've got 16 million people

who have smart phones all on social media,

and, you know, that's opening up

massive opportunities.

To be a journalist here now is just, uh, privilege.

- Yeah, is this... - So is this the, uh,

unofficial, uh, foreign correspondents club?

- It is. - Very much so.

- Yes indeed, yeah. - How long you been

- living here? - Most of 18 years.

- How long you been living... - Uh, I've had two stints.

I'm about six years.

- Yeah, so I count back. - Same, I've done two stints.

- So how are things going?

I mean, this... this is a Democracy now, yes?

- Oh, it is. - I've always called it

a microcosm of... of all the good and bad

in the world, 'cause Indonesia has everything.

Democracy, it has pollution;

it has environmental degradation;

it's got human rights abuses.

There's a lot of problems here,

but one of the great things going on is these elections

are free and fair, and everybody knows it.

- A popular president,

relative peace in the land.

- Free speech? - Oh, absolutely.

- But there... there are two subjects that

there is a real reluctance to talk about or reconcile,

and it's kind of weird.

The years 1965 and 1975...

There isn't much appetite to look at that.

- Why? - For reputational reasons...

- Yeah. - Uh, as much as anything,

but also potentially legal reasons as well,

so the... the two main perpetrators of the...

Of the massacre were the military

and the mass Islamic groups.

Um, the groups who are moderate these days

but at that time and with that hysteria

they were involved in this

kind of brutal pogrom.

This was sort of hand-to-hand,

slitting throats, garroting people,

burying them in mass graves...

Very nasty, nasty stuff.

And then the second reason is,

there was an intensive campaign of propaganda.

Which portrayed this, uh,

massacre as a... As a honorable attempt

by Suhato to put down a Communist coup.

- Is it even useful for Indonesians

to look at that extraordinarily...

painful...

- awful period of time? - We journalists write...

You know, you gotta believe

allowing these stories to be told is...

You know, is gonna be to the good.

- You know, I don't know.

I want to believe that, I really do.

I do believe that, but certainly

the West doesn't much want to talk about it.

No.

- We were... - Culpable.

But yes, we were... We were in deep.

But what is it... Henry Kissinger walks

into a bar... It sounds like a joke.

- Henry Kissinger and a penguin walk into a bar.

Uh, I'm not asking what you'd do,

but what would...

Would it displease you if I walked over

and punched Henry Kissinger in the face?

Would you find that

- entertaining? - I... I would.

- Would you have a frisson of pleasure, even?

Would you feel injustice is...

Is in some small way served?

- You hate Henry. - I... I hate him, yeah.

Because in my travels, I stumble across

his good works everywhere I go.

- Right.

Let's do this.

- I'll rabbit-punch.

- No, kidney punch. - Cheers.

- Cheers, guys.

- Java is Indonesia's seat of power,

but this home to millions is just one

of seemingly countless islands across the archipelago.

Bali endures as an island of legends.

Of magic and spirits.

Where ancient Animist traditions

bled with Hindu and Buddhist beliefs.

Ceremonies and offerings are an attempt

to bring harmony between the upper world of the gods

and the lower world of the demons...

With man balanced in between.

- Who is the hero?

Who is the villain?

Who decides what is right or wrong?

Bali is as much an island of the gods

as it is the demons.

- Feel the music

Can you feel the mu...

I hate Daft Punk.

Do you have a shot of the, uh, people

getting, uh, massages by the pool while eating?

This is an Emmy-winning shot, dude.

It's happening right over there.

- Yo - So this, too, is Bali, I guess.

Or it is now.

Thank you, Jimmy Buffet, for taking a big dump

on the world.

Another wagyu slider, my good man.

- Yes, thank you.

By weight, how much human waste

is generated by your average...

person on vacation?

Look around you.

Do the math.

I want a water sample.

I'm telling you, the fecal coliform count

has got to be interesting.

I'm sure there's a metaphor here.

- Oh!

- Am I bitter?

Am I just old?

Do I just have, like, a predisposition,

an instinctive hatred of young people?

Perhaps.

Enjoy the moment.

The words of Baba Ram Dass, "Be here now."

But I am here now.

I... I'm not actually having sliders.

I mean, you eat those [...] things.

- People who've seen "Eat Pray Love"...

who were inspired to come to Bali...

And do yoga...

They have a romantic notion.

They want to improve their lives in a...

Physical and spiritual way.

They would like to have and experience...

that they can remember.

You mention Bali and people think "paradise."

Of course.

- Oh, wow. - Thank you.

Oh, here they come.

- The babi guling. - Oh, yeah.

I remember this dish.

I love it, of course.

- Maybe we can just talk really quickly about the food?

No, I... I'll get it in a VO,

'cause I've had it before.

We don't need to talk about this food

'cause I know it very, very well.

I will speak incredibly knowledgably of it

in voice-over. Trust me.

- You've been here before, right?

- I have been here I think 11 years ago,

and it was a very different-looking place

- even then, 11 years ago. - 11 years is too long.

Yes.

- How did you get into the yoga business?

Did you anticipate it was... It would become so big,

- or did it start small? - Not really, honestly.

It was when the "Eat Pray and Love" was shooting

in the island.

- So tell me how many customers you do in a day.

- 300 to 400 people.

- That's a big increase. - It's... it's really huge.

'Cause you see the traffic, how crazy it is.

It is crazy.

Dealing with the traffic.

- I mean, it's worse than Manhattan.

- Uh, right now that... - We have two big problem

right now.

First is waste, second is traffic.

Is the tourism bad?

Yes, it have its bad side.

Is the tourism good? Yes, of course.

Right?

What is Bali?

What is Bali and its people?

What is Bali and its culture?

What part of this could be supported

by the people who come to Bali?

What kind of people do we want to come to Bali?

- I think you've kind of put your finger

on something that a lot of people have not.

Because you don't want to just do yoga...

You wanna do yoga in reasonable distance

of this.

Of these temples.

If you come to Bali and it looks

exactly like Cancún

and Miami, why the [...]

get on a plane all the way to Bali?

- This one the three most piratical places

on the planet.

It's pretty safe around here, now.

It wasn't to be in the early days

when we were filming here.

You first arrived in Indonesia in '65, right?

- That's right, but it was pretty...

Pretty hairy, then.

- Given that you arrived at absolutely

- the worst possible time... - Yep.

- What was it about the place that, uh, compelled you

- to come back? - Uh, unexplored regions,

tropical animals, ancient civilizations,

long memory amongst the people, mysticism.

Everything a school-boy would obviously love.

- Your, uh, training...

Correct me if I'm wrong... Psycho-anthropology?

- Yes. - Now, are there...

through-lines, or is there

any connectivity between belief systems?

- They're different, but they're all united

by a common theme... That they believe

in the reality of the invisible world.

They believe it's stronger than what we think

is the reality.

You know, what we can touch and measure and weigh.

They would all share the belief that this is illusion.

That this is only the surface

of another, greater reality beneath it.

In that, they're fairly constant.

This is Nusa Penida.

This was a penal colony for Bali.

- They put their criminals here. - Right.

- And they also believe that it is the home

of the Leyaks... the witches,

the black magicians.

- This island has not been invaded, uh, like Bali.

- No, it hasn't.

- Hey, there's a bachelor party going on there.

- Oh, no.

Just messing with you, man.

Wow, beautiful.

- Wow. - That's, uh...

- That's some big lobsters. - These have to be

the biggest local lobsters I've ever seen.

- Wow.

In the West, we tend to think of things

in a binary way.

There's good and evil, life, death.

You've seen every variety of human behavior...

uh, in this part of the world.

Always a notion of light and dark,

good and evil... just not absolute ones?

- Uh, you know, we call Bali

"the island of the gods."

That's a sort of slogan for the tourism industry,

but it's equally an island of the demons,

I mean, I... I've always found useful, in anthropology,

this concept of the left and right cranial hemispheres.

- Right. - The left is the thing

that we are over-dominant in in the West,

handles the rational, practical, consecutive thought.

Here, it's the opposite imbalance.

It's the other way round.

The right is the intuitive, holistic,

access to everything we've ever been,

- access to our genetic... - That's our right brain.

- Memory. - Exactly.

- So they know stuff we don't know?

- They definitely know stuff we don't know.

- Given all the time you've spent in Indonesia,

do you experience life differently,

or in any way similarly

to the people here look at it?

- No, I don't think I do see it the way people here see it.

I like to think that I can see what it is

that they're seeing, as it were

but I've got a broader perspective.

Course, I'm a Westerner,

and a foreigner in a strange land.

I'll never be considered an Indonesian.

I... I'm enriched by being here,

because there's a greater variety

of human experience going on here.

- Yeah, tell me about the funerals,

'cause I... We were attending one.

- Y-y-you are? - You will be?

- Yes.

- Well, a Balinese funeral

is a very sobering phenomenon,

especially for us Westerners,

who distance ourselves from death.

- Mm-hmm.

- They spend quite a long time

doing these beautiful offerings,

all of it to up in flames.

- Ah.

- So it's ephemeral art,

and the idea is that we, too, are ephemeral,

and, uh, this is why it's quite an extraordinary thing

that you actually light the match

that consumes your loved one,

but it's in your face...

- Mm-hmm. - That we are not our bodies,

because they really believe in an afterlife.

They really believe that you will be coming back,

and you will be joining your ancestors in the meantime.

It may be wrong, but it's wonderful

to be able to believe that,

and to derive all the warmth

and strength and benefit of it.

Is this all human poetry,

or is there something in it?

- Yeah, I wonder. - I mean, I thought about,

you know, as one does...

- Yeah. - You know, how I want to go.

How do you want to go?

- I'd be burned.

- I can handle cremation. - You want a party?

- I mean... - Oh, I'd rather a party, yes.

- You would? - How about you?

You want them all to cry, don't you?

No, no.

Leave me in the jungle.

- Okay. - I don't want a party.

- Um... - Okay.

- "Reported dead."

- Okay.

- You know, what actually happens

to my physical remains

- is of zero interest to me... - Doesn't matter.

- Unless it can provide entertainment value.

Throw me into a wood chipper

and spray me into Harrods, you know,

at, uh, middle of the rush hour.

That would be pretty epic.

I wouldn't mind being remembered in that way.

- Wayang is not necessarily

entertainment for the people.

Most of the time, it's performed

for the unseen.

That's why it's a shadow play.

It's also for the shadow world.

Balinese have a lot of magical thinking.

Often, we believe that

what happens in the real world is a consequence

of what is happening in the shadow world.

That's why there's so much offerings

and appeasements.

Every day, we make offerings:

love notes, thank-you notes,

left around to the spirits, saying,

"Thank you for keeping everything in balance."

So today is the final rites of the human.

Once the ashes are scattered to the sea,

then begin the rites of the spirit.

- So who will attend the funeral today?

- The family, of course,

but cremations in Bali

are very much a communal affair,

so the village runs it.

- It's not just the family. - Right.

People's attitudes

towards the passing of a life,

towards death, funerals, wakes,

different here than in the West.

- Very much so. - No weeping

- and rending of garments. - There's... there is

- a lot of... - There is?

- It's...

At the bathing ceremony of the body,

that is when the mournful event

becomes a joyous occasion.

- Right, but the funeral itself...

- Is a joyous occasion,

especially the cremation. It's a big send-off.

It's a big party to send a spirit

to the afterlife.

- We are not talking about the end.

- No.

Life is cyclical.

It's very much a circle.

- So this is something to be happy about.

- Yes, definitely.

The priest is throwing out rice,

- along with money. - Oh, we're...

- And essentially, this action

is to confuse and misdirect

the spirits that might try to...

Try to follow the...

- Love the sound. - It's beautiful.

- So... - The gamelan.

- It reverberates throughout your body,

and the idea is that that noise

shatters the illusion

between the seen and the unseen worlds.

- The state of mind is very important

for your next journey.

This is where you frame that big send-off

to the next life, and of course,

that journey is the... The mystery,

the unknown, because eventually,

the soul will be reincarnated back here.

- The shadow play story of Bhima Swarga

is often told as part of funerary rites

for many reasons.

Heaven and hell are allegories, not truths.

Heaven and hell exist

right here, on the mortal plane.

No tears should be shed

during the cremation ceremony.

Tears only hold back the soul of the departed.

At sundown, ashes will be released,

returned to the purity of the sea.

Time is circular, as is life.

Death is but the beginning

of another journey.

- All stories should end on a beach.

All the good ones do, anyway.

Why should this one be any different?