"Sacred Waters of Bali" video online

Enjoy Mara Alper's documentary "Sacred Waters of Bali"

vimeo.com/channels/maraalper

             We enter the beauty of Bali without a word, witness the connection to water that transcends the practical. Water is sacred in Bali, not taken for granted. It graces every offering and ceremony, purifies each prayer. Sensual, poetic rhythms and images layered with music, chanting and natural sounds reveal rich Bali Hindu traditions that endure amidst modernity.

Deep interconnections with each other, nature and the gods are expressed in a cremation ceremony, water purification ritual, new year water blessing for sacred statues and daily life.

New Year Melasti Ceremony

Ogoh-Ogoh Procession

High Priestess Ida Resi Alit

"Sacred Waters of Bali" video coming soon

Mara Alper's documentary "Sacred Waters of Bali" will be available on Vimeo.com next week. Watch here for the link to view it.

This evocative short film shows Bali Hindu devotion to water in ceremonies for cremations, New Year's Melasti, Saraswati and water purification with High Priestess Ida Resi Alit. Beautiful images, music, sounds of water and nature draw the viewer into Balinese daily life and ceremonies.

Balinese New Year -- Nyepi -- Ogoh-Ogoh -- Water Ceremony Parade of Giant Monsters and Silent Day

Each year the entire island of Bali celebrates New Year together on the new moon in March. This year Nyepi was March 20 - 21. For a month before, the young men in each village built the Ogoh-Ogoh monsters. Day by day, I watched them progress.

For weeks before preparations are made for the three day event, beginning with the ritual of going to the sea for the sacred objects from every village temple to be purified and blessed by the waters.

The parade of the giant monsters is the night before Nyepi, the Silent Day. Their job is to chase demons away from Bali so the New Year ahead will go well. Live gamelan music plays for each one -- the video at the end has a bit of it.

Magnificent creatures! Every village makes them, but the ones in Ubud are legendary as this is the cultural center of Bali, the town of artists.

People come from everywhere to see the Ogoh-Ogoh

Performers enact stories about the monsters

 
When these giants pass by carried on bamboo platforms by dozens of men, we are all shoved back by the traditional Balinese police so we won't be trampled, especially when they spin around -- very exciting indeed. We all yell in fear and glee.

The next story -- To the sea for purification! I have waited years to see this.
In my next post . . .

"Re-Imagining Water" Presented in New Orleans

I had the wonderful opportunity to give my multimedia presentation about water in New Orleans on Earth Day April 22, 2012. For people who survived Katrina and live below sea level in most places in their city, talking about water is a whole different thing.

Since part of my presentation focuses on how we are convinced we need to buy bottled water, even though it is tested for impurities far less than municipal water, and people in New Orleans are taught to be afraid of their local water, it was an interesting Q & A afterward. I encouraged them to read the reports from their local water boards and compare them to other cities as I did to learn the truth - their water is fine to drink most of the time and they know nothing about the sources for the bottled water they pay a great deal for every day.

They were open to the idea of using water filters in their homes and getting reusable water bottles. I proudly showed them my Tap Back The Tap bottle and told them about FoodandWaterWatch.org. Hopefully, a little bit of change will happen in time.

They did like my slogan: "Where there are faucets, there is wasted water," and appreciated our free flowing water in a new way. And i learned more about the raging side of water in their Katrina stories. Water is both benign and fierce, worthy of respect either way.