The Eleven Powers

By Larry Gartenstein

“The most holy of all Balinese Hindu festivals, the Eka Dasa Rudra, the Festival of the Eleven Powers, was celebrated on the last day of the Balinese century in the Saka year 1900 (1979 AD).

This book is a record of that festival.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: booksunleashed
• Release date: Oct 23, 2014

Book preview

About the Festival

Years of prophecy and months of preparation culminated in one of the most spectacular festivals of the 20th century, which took place on the island of Bali in 1979.

Called the Festival of the Eleven Powers, or Eka Dasa Rudra, the event is supposed to be held every 100 years to mark the end of the Balinese century and to balance the forces of good and evil throughout the world.

More than 2 million people took part in the celebrations in which one of almost every animal species on Bali was sacrificed to appease the gods, who were angry with mounting human greed, vice and aggression around the world.

After numerous requests, Larry Gartenstein and Frank Heimans were finally granted access to this extraordinary event and made the only filmic and written record of this unique festival.

They now present it to you in this book and DVD package in the hope that it will foster a greater understanding of Bali.

And, as I Wayan Surpha writes, a greater understanding between the peoples of the world must play some small part in attaining universal peace and brotherhood, which is the aim of the Eka Dasa Rudra.

Nothing in my career as a filmmaker surpassed the making of The Eleven Powers. It was a roller-coaster ride from the very beginning of our arrival at Denpasar airport to our return four weeks later with our precious film footage of this remarkable event staged on the loveliest of islands. Lovers of Bali, scholars, visitors to Bali and students will discover much that is rewarding in this documentary, which was written by Bryce Courtenay and narrated by Orson Welles.

Frank Heimans

About Larry Gartenstein

Over the course of a long life, Larry Gartenstein has traveled widely, visiting Outer Mongolia, Bhutan, Japan, Korea, India, Burma, China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Samoa, Antarctica, the Arctic, Egypt, the Soviet Union, Turkey, Bali and other places, and has written numerous articles for GEO magazine about his travels.

Before embarking on his own business in sales and marketing, he worked for IBM as Australian-New Zealand Sales Manager for the Office Products division, attending many conferences in New York, Paris and other places.

His interests are archaeology, history and politics.

In his younger days he excelled in weightlifting, holding many records and titles, and as a weightlifting official he managed teams competing in Mexico and Moscow for the world championships.

Larry was born in Shanghai China in 1929 and is of Russian, Jewish, Turkish and Bulgarian heritage.

About Frank Heimans

Frank Heimans is an independent documentary filmmaker, oral history producer, writer and interviewer.

He has produced, directed and edited and more than fifty television documentaries on subjects as varied as the geishas of Japan, the Living Goddess of Nepal, Theresienstadt concentration camp, the history of Australian Dance, the future of peoples of the Pacific, Australia seen through Aboriginal eyes, the Occult and the Margaret Mead-Derek Freeman controversy, the greatest in Anthropology.

From 1991 to 1996 he was the founding producer, writer, director and editor of the Australian Biography series (broadcast by SBS Television) and produced the first 32 programs in this landmark archival and television series on iconic Australians.

Frank Heimans’ documentary films have been screened on television in Australia and thirty-one countries and have won twenty-one Australian and international awards, including three Gold Medals from the International Film & TV Festival of New York.

The Eleven Powers

A Once in a Hundred Years Balinese Ceremony

By Larry Gartenstein

The Eleven Powers — A Once in a Hundred Years Balinese Ceremony

Book with colour photographs and accompanying DVD

Text of book written by Larry Gartenstein

Stills photographer Douglass Baglin

Executive Producer of Documentary Larry Gartenstein

Producer and Director of Documentary Frank Heimans

DOP Geoffrey Burton

Film script written by Bryce Courtenay and narrated by Orson Welles

The film (50 minutes) received a Gold Award at the 1981 International Film & TV Festival of New York

© Larry Gartenstein

Email: [e-mail]

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity, including internet search engines or retailers, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying (except under the statutory exceptions provisions of the Australian Copyright Act 1968), recording, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

The fact that this book is published online does not mean that any part of it can be reproduced without first obtaining written permission: copyright laws do still apply. Inquiries should be directed to the author.

The author asserts his moral right to be identified as the author of this book.

First published by Books Unleashed at Smashwords in 2014

PO Box 386 Broadway

Sydney NSW 2007 Australia

Phone [phone]

[e-mail]

https://www.breakout.net.au/folio.html

ISBN 978-0-9876001-5-8 (e-book edition)

Cataloguing-in-Publication entry is available from the National LIbrary of Australia

http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/

Cover image: Grand procession of over 200,000 participants from the mountain to the sea in the 33km Melasti march

Contents

Foreword

Preface

1. Introduction

2. The geography of Bali

3. The history of Bali

4. The religion of the people

5. The Balinese way of life

6. The arts of Bali

7. The festival of the Eka Dasa Rudra