The Indonesian Island Where Noise is Illegal
it's never been harder to truly disconnect and rejuvenate your mind body and spirit than right now why well in a world of endless connectivity and noise the constant barrage of information is leading us to overwhelming stress disconnecting us from inner peace and making us strangers to the natural world around us but imagine if there was a way to cut through the noise a path less followed that leads to True Serenity and self-renewal well there's one place left on Earth that truly achieves this woven into the fabric of ancient bonese Traditions deep in the roots of Hinduism there's neppi or the Day of Silence the final day of a week-long ritual of purification sacrifice confrontation and finally renewal there are three steps to achieve this in bonese Hinduism masty a cleansing ceremony that begins as a chance to purify religious items and oneself in sacred Waters that quickly turns into the possession of the human entity by spirits and deities designed to cleanse the individual and the community of evil influences AO AO a vibrant explosion of community creativity and togetherness that dispels evil forces Among Us symbolized by giant demonic Effigies that parade through the streets and then set Ablaze in a spectacular Purge of negativity and finally nepp day a day of complete silence when noise light and even leaving your room is not only forbidden for the ceremony but illegal by local law a chance to convince the evil spirits that nobody is home a chance to start a new day in complete spiritual Rejuvenation in this video we're going to discover these three ceremonies together with a raw and sometimes confronting experience on our path to true peace and silence so after making my way down to the beach I struggled to find the ceremony itself and I had to ask quite a few locals on the exact location of the masty ceremony you can walk all the way to all the way that way okay awesome thank you so much thank you Su I've been walking for so long like so long all the way down there and I I found it yes yes let's let's get across look how many people there are there so many [Music] people there is so many people I've been here for ages and they're still just walk there's so many people coming down here it's it's been going for minutes and minutes like a long time there are so many people um they're obviously coming back up from the beach um to go somewhere but you could see the massive States they've made of the um beings and I saw a couple but obviously we're going to see more in Yepi day which I'm really excited for now I even thought I'd missed most of the ceremony as most people were leaving the beach good man but Michael booked me a grab bike to the correct location and I was on my way to experience the big masty ceremony we run into the actual parade on the street [Music] here which is what I've come to see but now I'm stuck behind it I was stuck in this parade on the back of the of the car and now we're here and I'm just in the middle I'm just in the middle of this there are so many people and just like nowhere to walk but this is so fun this is cool there is so many people participating in right now this is insane I'm heading down to the beach to see if I can see the cleansing in the water um it might be over right now I'm not sure but I've traveled to this place because this is where it's meant to be big for like a long time and as you can see there's a parade all the way down to the water um so I'm I'm just in it I guess I guess we're going to the water I think what they're wearing as well is maybe the batic or the special btic for today and it looks really nice so they're wearing all white shirts but they're wearing different colors sometimes on the bottom so if that means something different let me know or if it's just personal preference of what color you want to wear on your bottom then tell me tell me that as well tell me in the comments if you know so they're all coming from where we were on the road down this road and then coming up here on these ramps and then coming into onto the beach down this way and there's just obviously as you can see so many people around this is really cool this is this is awesome to see look how many people so what am I searching for well the molases ceremony is probably the least known of the three main parts of nepi week this is where locals will head to their local Beach to purify themselves and religious items in the ocean but it can get dark pretty [Music] quick possession and dramatic manifestation see individuals become mediums for evil deities or ancestral Spirits in a process that's called Tre car and this is something I had to see to truly understand this is this is like intense like this is so many emotions I feel like I just in this area of me right now and I'm not even a kind of person to feel like like this like this is very spiritual and I can I can feel it I can feel like I can feel a lot of heightened emotions [Music] [Music] [Applause] I'm struggling I am very sweaty very hot I feel like I have sunstroke I honestly I know that this is so such an important celebration for them but to do it in the heat like this is so hard like I feel for them I just bought a aari set even though I don't like parar that was honestly intense that was one of the most intense things I've ever seen so because it's about an hour until the a oga parade and ceremony starts today which is about to happen and I'm so excited things are closing for neppi tomorrow tomorrow is all silent ypp I'm getting ready oh okay we have to get all of our food now cuz everything's closed tomorrow wrti oh hello so all of our orders are coming at once Michael right yeah for STI thank you so everything's closed tomorrow like everything you can't order and we're rookies we don't know what to do we're trying to order everything like all of our food all of our water all of our drinks everything for tomorrow because as of like tonight we're locked out of our we're locked in sorry we're locked in our complex completely we can't leave this whole the very front gate so there's probably about 10 houses and a couple of Villas in this complex the front gate will be lost this is our rations this is it so the one thing I didn't think I'd be able to live without tomorrow is coffee so we've ordered one liters worth um a lot of the places like the local coffee shops I wanted to get them from are already closed a few businesses though are doing like packs so you can buy like sé a which is like chicken skewers in bulk so that's going to be really helpful we weren't prepared for this so we weren't sure what to get we figured we can eat cold pizza tomorrow without making too many noise or lighting anything up you can buy coffee by the liter packs of chicken sé you can order on grab Mart or go to the shop and stock up like we said things might not be open tonight after ogre ogre so we're trying to also eat tonight and then eat all tomorrow when we can't leave I for on and super excited to see like everything quiet no lights no sounds everyone out apparently you can see the nicest Stars tomorrow because there's nothing impeding The View we'll see how that goes trying to be silent for me so we're walking down this thing and I hear oh there they are already they're obviously getting ready to go oh wow so they're the ones that we actually went past this morning and they were in that Temple obviously like kept away for tonight um and now they're out and they're getting ready to go and see this like bamboo I guess I don't know thing is where they put them and then they carry them around on that bamboo um so this is cool wow they're so much bigger in person see they're still working on it down here I guess they're putting on like tape and stuff for like the light as you can see like most of them are like young I think it's like the youth to do like uh a lot of the youth or the younger males of the um like area kind of take it on I hello [Laughter] hello it's so big yeah yeah it's massive they are a lot bigger in person like they're like well this guy's taller than me it's a big thing to make like I'm I'm really impressed all right let's let's keep going the younger men make the A and run that and the older men are security and these guys tomorrow on YY day are also who make sure you stay inside and do things it's not the police it's the leaders of the community here here H at like 7 7:00 no 8:00 8:00 okay and it comes through yeah period here okay yeah that way first in what's uh what's this B SW traditional and what is it called what sword Balin sword Balin traditional that's cool so it seems to be around 7 but it depends on where where things start and end they're kind of made all over the cities and the towns so you'll always kind of find one being made roughly where you are we've made it to where I think it's starting or there's some bigger oh there there's so many wow there's Hees okay so this is a place I think that it starts or will start this one's this one's moving like this one has its head like swiveling how do they get gr like that I want to know how much they ha to make this is insane how long do they make these for I'm going to ask these guys if this is their one is this your one you make ITA [Music] Bara milon 5 million these guys now is this this yours yeah uh what up by uh them uh 20 30 million 30 million almost 30 million really yeah and how long did it take you to make it three that wa we start in January in January wow and a lot um a lot of time of the day like for do you do it every day you make it every day wow and how how old are you yeah how old are you 17 17 20 how old 1 wow that's so good fusus thank you wow that is crazy they worked on that for 3 months and they said they did it every day they're 17 years old this is what I was saying where I said like the youth lead the making of these things 3 months to make it wow 30 million how much is that 30 million repair 3 Grand holy moly that's crazy so the purpose of these augers is to like stir up these bad spirits and then tomorrow we all go into hiding and then these bad spirits that are out and released think no one's around and then they leave the [Music] island is this yours that's your you you have a card for the 14 I'll vote for [Applause] two do do it do nice nice nice [Music] nice 20 20 million 20 million yeah and how long 2 months 3 months 3 months 3 months three months wow and how old are you I'm uh 27 27 me too me too thank you I'm going to ask these boys wow that's so cute you YouTu yeah oh I show you my YouTu can you have I'm sorry my friend my friend that's okay that's I'm sorry yeah yeah oh I watch it okay where's your phone yeah my YouTube we're going to watch his channel while we're here wow you me a he's liking subscribe like thumbs up for the video oh he's commenting make sure you leave a comment what are you going to say very nice radio a terassi yeah we'll comment on yours oh yeah yeah let's comment on yours yeah let's like like let's go go comment there you go Mutual support Mutual support thank you my my my my friend is B yes good okay back this okay after hearing about the Monumental effort that goes into making these from the locals themselves we settled in ready to watch the battle happening until just minutes before the ceremony was about to start a torrential downpour of rain rolled in he's actually really bad go over here delaying everything as people scrambled for any bit of C that they could find okay I went now we walked around aimlessly drenched not sure if the prade was going to go ahead at all with the electrical components in these massive AOS and just as we started to wander back to our Village area for the local show with the smaller we were caught in a swell of people and ended up part of the ogoo parade itself yes aoo is not just about showing off and making the biggest and baddest creatures you can this is participated in every village on the island at all different levels and After experiencing the big dance in Cuda we ended up back in our village to see the local show in the same manner it would be celebrated by millions of others at the same time all over barley uh kapap K yeah now yeah from here I thought you want to practice Indonesian I'm I'm trying okay I'm I'm very new to learning yeah I learn slow yeah they they're going that way first they're going that way okay I'll wait here and maybe in 1 hour 1 hour yeah okay one more hour dinner go have dinner okay all right we've come to the local part now we went back to our Villa and changed clothes cuz we were soaking wet and now this is the local local OG coming through here now and look how like these are obviously still big but like oh look at all the kids springing here oh uh they call like Randa Rand yeah I think so ah thank you it's big yeah thank you yeah really big uh yeah it's oh nice yeah for tomorrow yeah okay so do you like oh yes very good it's fun I like itti thank you okay just to give you some reference we came out at 400 p.m. it's now almost 10:00 p.m. so yeah it's late I'm not sure whether the rain held up things or or what but it's all starting again now we just waited here for another like 2 [Applause] hours oh they're so cute [Applause] [Music] that's cool this is cool they just like keep coming out now there's probably like 2 4 6 eight so far and now they're just coming out like a parade obviously trying really hard to get through the crow of people over here as well after waiting for hours we'd reached the peak of the Ogo Ogo event led by the youth the males holding and battling the aor aor and the girls carrying traditional fire torches with a group playing the kol and other traditional instruments [Music] so this is nippy it is the Day of Silence let me tell you something it was super weird waking up to absolutely no cars or motorbikes at all and if you've been to Southeast Asia you know that that is almost impossible to imagine so I can quite literally hear nothing besides the birds it's surreal it's surreal now not only are we not allowed out of our Villa our complex is locked shut no stores are open you can't get food you can't get grab you can't even fly into the island the airport is closed it truly is a day of absolute silence wow from what I've heard from Indonesians or the banese is that one the sky is beautiful tonight because there's nothing on and there's no lights and the sky is magical so I can't wait to show you that later but too they use this as a day of reflection and relaxation and I guess just coming back down to Earth because barley is an incredibly incredibly chaotic Island not only the amount of tourists but there's just always something happening I think for them it's also just a day to reflect in the quiet and it certainly is quiet so in the end I did experience true silence nothing like I had heard before in an island so famous for tourism traffic and a constant stream of development and growth a stand steel is found only once annually it's honestly amazing and impressive that a place that is now Generations deep into tourism identity has managed to hold on so tight to its spiritual and religious roots and this is something that you will notice if you get away from the normal tourist track of Bary and speak to locals and experience the island in the way that they would want you to experience it Bary gets a bad rap from some people where I'm from it's considered a holiday for those who may go there only for cheap beers and fancy hotels but I promise you it's so much more than what you think it is next time you're seeking spirituality natural beauty smiling people and that rare feeling of absolute silence visit bar during neppy it just might give you a new outlook on life thank you B for having me see you on the next one
2024-04-19 13:40
