Royal Wedding: Bali Style (Royalty Documentary) | Real Stories

[Music] the countdown to a Bali Hai wedding has begun at the royal palace of ubud villagers from far and wide occurring out this centuries-old Balinese wedding traditions we need two and a half thousands of people as the center of it all is the mother of the royal groom an Australian Balinese princess I was trying to work out how much one organizing a wedding is stressful for any money pouring was right yeah that could be what if you are also expected to supervise complex Hindu traditions observe royal protocols and your son the prince is marrying a celebrity Indonesian actress [Music] with only a week to go before the big day hundreds of villagers arrive daily with their donations of ritual offerings and food tributes to their revered royal family [Music] it's also a chance to get close to the celebrity bride happy salma adored Indonesian TV star in there first for my wedding excited too and yeah it's the whole new world for happy a Muslim from Java but for Prince chuckles a Hindu their marriage ceremony is a familiar part of his people's spiritual life Balinese wedding is different to anywhere in the world it's kind of a mixture between animistic and Buddhist and Hindu later it's something that's unique to Diwali something of course being Balinese it's important [Music] I don't think she's ever saying about this buddies nah I don't think you can ever be prepared for what's happening it's probably better not to me [Music] the head of this extended royal family of about 300 members is princess nursery's husband the groom's father my name is taka daka kept Yasir that come from the Warriors Inlet we can raise up to twenty fourth generation back until the early 1900s and Dutch colonial rule the royal family were the feudal monarchs of a board or boat lies in the interior of Bali at the heart of the board is poori or pod the royal palace it's the cultural center of Bali renowned for its spirituality Balinese Hinduism mixed with an ancient reference for the natural world is part of the fabric of daily life and the villagers look to the palace as custodians of their face back in 2004 the royal family presided over the biggest funeral ceremony in living memory the cremation of the daughter of the last true king of Bali a woman regarded for most of the last century as a living goddess in 2004 princess Arthur his daughter princess Maya was an 11 year old school girls boarding in Sydney for most of the year she came to Bali to honor her grandmother and fulfilled the role she was born to but Balinese princess [Music] Oh boots royal ceremonies bring together thousands of local people a community of over 69 villages and now seven years later the community is once again preparing for another royal event in Auburn this time the wedding of a prince and today princess Audrey and her husband Prince recorder akka are hosting a party for their royal family and everyone is invited [Music] as princess ostry entertains her royal in-laws it's a world away from the reception she received as a young bride to be 32 years ago my own father Rovers jangle sb yeah plain-jane it was 1977 and the 23 year old kindergarten teacher from Sydney holidaying in aboard fell for the local children's theatre director a print destiny yeah in English destiny Jane's parents hadn't expected a holiday romance would lead to her marrying the Balinese Prince my father was fine about it actually I remember him say well thank god he's not Australian [Laughter] [Music] leftenant Colonel Rollo Gillespie an ex British intelligence agent had made a life in Australia with his wife and two children my father had been married before he was quite a lot older than my mother but not as old as rocket I was rocket grew up with 10 mothers and numerous siblings and things of course I only grew up with one mother and one brother as the youngest son of his father's 10th wife the prince was expected to marry within the Balinese royal family it was quite a lot of opposition to it and people trying to talk him out of it then took my passport away and had me checked out and Interpol Prince chacorta raka refused about a family pressure and in 1978 made an Australian commoner a Balinese princess [Music] for newlywed princess Audrey Palace life was far from palatial we didn't have electricity we didn't have running water refrigeration telephones yeah we didn't have much at all in those days and it was a very tiny village I think my parents would be shocked ha ha ha it was rather primitive I guess for them when I saw the conditions that we would be living in so stepping back in time almost with the arrival of their first child life in the palace became even harder for a three it was made with the degree in child psychology and child rearing being told you can't do this you can't do that and I had my mother-in-law sleeping outside the door and knocking on the door every time there was a whimper oh no it was quite difficult I remember having to lock myself in my room some of the biggest challenges were our own cultural differences and expectations I guess he had a lot of apologizing to do to his family as opposed to her for me you know I had to also learn to bite my tongue and be given to things when I felt it was necessary but it was a steep learning curve for both of us to understand each other's culture and for a Balinese princess observing sacred rituals was part of the role I went to an Anglican school I wasn't religious at all but so changing to Hinduism wasn't a big deal for me it's part of daily life here it's not something that you consciously have to do or don't do I mean everybody does it in your heart you can pay to whoever you want it's big through your actions and three heart thirty-two years on an Azeri scene or puts tourism and prosperity transform the once rural community increased wealth means Balinese royal weddings are observed far more lavishly for chopped goose and happy Ashley's wedding portrait is a picture of days long gone more simple all over Bao it's not just no family of people are much more affluent and they spend their money on ceremony so it's more of a big show now than it was in those days the head of the royal family Prince chacorta akka is keeping an eye on the royal invitation committee some of them preparing for the invitation to be sent tomorrow but in Bali notable invitations come printed on paper the groom's father an older brother Prince Jacques de our supervising the preparation of invitations made of food these are like a cultural invitation is the traditional way that you send out an invitation to family and to other people within you know your your sort of cultural circle while the women are busy making elaborate decorative offerings for the wedding it's traditionally the men who prepare these customary food invitations there are strict conventions to observe with the pork Sartre's they have to count as a distinct of the satay for high priest it should be 22 stick for the more important person then become 16 stick then becomes recognized how important the person will be sending the food now go out in pickup trucks all over the place and they'll deliver them personally okay as the traditional invitations are delivered to hundreds of Royals high priests and village elders in a boat down south on Bali surf coast the groom is personally delivering wedding invites to his maids [Music] no more ticks for you nighty life my full name is shkodra biggest we Santana Casa also called max by lot of Western people because as full of cold when I was kid in Sydney I grew up to like normal kid in Sydney we used to come back every year always kind of had a little taste of Balinese culture where nursery and Takada Rocca decided to educate their three children in Australia it meant leaving Bali and living as Aussies I was born in Bali and when you're born here they bury your placenta and theirs are saying that some Balinese are a type of people who find it very hard to move abroad it's because of your your placenta is buried here rather than castaways we moved back and forth a lot though I still get a bit confused sometimes but they're just such different cultures they're like a tolerance even though seemingly close for his sister Princess Maya these cultural differences were unforgiving yeah growing up was really difficult like the main conflict for me is being a young girl there's just such a difference between what's acceptable for a young woman to do within the Western culture and within the Indonesian culture there's also a little bit of prejudice because you're a half Asian and so it's kind of difficult to deal with you never know exactly where you fit in and exactly where you're accepted challenging years for as raised husband who took on work unheard of for a prince can you imagine and gardening on the street you know in Australia and that's really big fight when you grow up mentally is painful and you have to face it until you pass it and that's kind of exercise you really need it you have to feel the pain but after they pass next time is no problem if I do gardening and fine if not I'm also fine with a royal family now permanently back in Bali for over a decade Prince chacorta Rocca has become the head of culture and religion in a board with the title of the wise one nowadays they often also have to consult with me because I've been living in the West that give me some new perspective here in the modern time without losing the essence of our culture growing up in the West didn't sever cultural ties for the Royal children I've always had a strong connection just because of things my father always taught me about leaves your home and your ancestors as a teenager max left Sydney to live permanently in Bali as Prince Jacques of course especially here in oh boy there's not not much to do for young people ceremonies like going to the mall or something you can go out there you can look at the girls you can meet up with your friends you know it's like small it's more like a social thing for young people max has always been a Bali boy his life here he's lived in Australia but he prefers it here he likes to surf you know he's got all these friends his gang and like his father before him max met his bride on her holiday in Bali happy we met when she was here on holiday with one of her friends and then we all went to the beach that's how we first met after that things got a bit more serious yeah [Music] and here manicure happy comes from Java an Indonesian island with very different cultural and religious traditions like as Reba for her happy has a lot to learn to become part of this Balinese royal family wedding in Indonesia not only married with the man like me in it chuckles but I'm married with they're all family like chuckles married with me he married to my family too she's so beautiful always beautiful [Laughter] and for happy Selma the TV star there's another family her millions of devoted in donation fans I don't really watch in the nation TV and as tomates not such a big deal I guess some of my cousin and other family people questioning about know you will be half an actress and look I don't know what they expect I never think of her as a celebrity she's just well now my daughter-in-law [Music] I remember in my high school supervised by princess we're weird / sister-in-law-to-be Pappy is on a crash cultural course learning how to make Hindu offerings for her royal wedding they really have strong personality and they really have a strong energy so I feel pretty much like this a member of an aristocratic family herself we-we'd had her own struggles when she fell in love with Prince Jacques day from Catholic family when I moved to bali human with him got a Balinese boyfriend and his Hindus and my family turn oh [ __ ] oh you know he's Hindu I used to work chiropractor clinic in Kota here's one of the patient care factor they fix that back he's got a broken heart so I suface him after overcoming her family's initial reservations we wit and chop day became another love match for his royal family yeah that's probably something that we learn from our father the traditional accepted thing to do is to marry within the same class someone from the same regional palace or the neighboring palaces there's still a lot of alliance forming a bit even today a lot of the young generation are still doing that 83 year old royal matriarch chopped days grandmother married a prince who already had nine other wives Marie's mother-in-law was the tenth wife of a much older husband I was the youngest in my family my father I heard from mice all this house history he had about ten wives polygamy is part of traditional balinese for our life a lot of people had said to him oh well you know that's okay you can have her but no get a real wife to Balinese wife I just made it obvious to him that if he wanted to have another wife that was fun but you couldn't have two I'm not gonna be number one wife and then and have number two was I'll be the ex-wife my brother-in-law had two wives and that doesn't work my never works no matter what they say and even Balinese women don't like sharing don't never talk about it and therefore also think about for Royal husbands taking another wife is very much a personal decision obviously I don't want that happen again it's up to chop dating like you decided if you think you need another one no I think yeah we all know that we just want to be the only one but then yeah yeah princess Harry has made a last-minute - to pick up formal balinese outfits being made for the Royal women in the bridal party Ezra's youngest child 18 year old princess Maya is with her for a last-minute fitting I think Maya's in a difficult position because you know obviously there's a lot of expectations on her a lot of pressure on her not from that ass but from time for her to marry a Balinese not only ballets that here's someone from the family but yeah when she looks around the picking if I marry outside of the royal family I basically lose my title and I'm not a part of the family anymore she does get a lot of pressure from other people everybody trying to match her up with this I know sometimes it puts her off going to things cuz she's just gets really tired of the pressure unlike her two brothers princess Maya nice marry another royal family member to retain her title as a royal princess and to qualify for Balinese royal wedding in order to have a wedding like that I'd be required to marry in the family and honestly I don't really see that happening so I don't think that's the type of wedding I'll be having with her son preparing for his wedding princess has three needs to check on their business an hour's drive away from a boy at the moment with the preparations for the wedding it's a bit of a challenge because it's very busy here together with her son prince chopped course princess Azeri opened up a teahouse I wanted to have a business mum was also not doing much at the time so we decided we would do it together I've sort of thought of the things that I wanted to say in Bali that weren't here and that's when my son and I came up with the concept of bicker it's in an old wooden juggler which is a Javanese house kind of an eclectic mix of old Indonesia and old England I'd kind of say yeah when Ezra's daughter-in-law wanted to work part time actually just like oh wow why don't you work it bhiku so now become involved with customer with all the stuff the kitchen and everything and then also I love making the cupcake with a royal family in charge tourists are not just after the cakes of Baku our which one is the the princess [Laughter] when you would like to meet the prison oh yeah if that's okay and for princess das 3zt house also represents the changes she's experienced as a westerner in bali well it's a completely different places of the place I came to I mean there's nothing we can't do in Bali now it's a luxury destination it's decadent almost and in so many ways while the tourists enjoy themselves the Balinese people put their traditional responsibilities first [Music] hundreds of Abboud's villages are working hard on royal wedding preparations like their many offerings to the balinese hindu gods this work is a sign of respect and appreciation most of this donation and the workers the source of all volunteer so that's that's how our tradition to keep the cultural life as they give to the royal family an entire village is creating intricate ritual offerings to be displayed on the wedding day the offering making will take days time the people of the village would normally spend working in their rice fields or in paid jobs a replica temple is being made from pork fat and Sartre's [Music] complete with umbrellas made from inert making these offerings for the royal wedding is an age-old spiritual custom spiritualities is an integral part of life here it's just a part of daily life barley moves to a different set of priorities than Sydney and more commercial parts of the world at the end of those why people like coming here some people who even don't go to ceremony say that there's something in the air here the villages have sculpted a macro cosmos knowing that the gods and the ancestors will also appreciate the beauty of their art with the offerings now complete they're needed at the palace it's a rough journey right across the border along dirt tracks and bumpy roads the offerings arrive at the palace in bits and pieces Roel groom Prince chop goose is on hand to receive the villagers wedding gift they just bring in this so like a decorative up offerings they've been making that for a few days and this is made from pigs fat and with a thousand guests expected Prince took order akka and princess history are making a personal visit to the wedding caterers she said this is the most popular vegetable the third and stuff means kind of interact by banana leaf and less DeMuth yeah you have to try princess Audrey is no stranger to organizing large events under pressure when the terrorist bombing struck Bali in 2002 killing and injuring hundreds of tourists and locals as we threw herself into helping with the aftermath at that crisis time here helping in the hospital and then fundraising and and helping in whatever ways we couldn't after the bomb it was hard sometimes to be an Australian Australian seemed to take it on as their tragedy whereas actually it was a Balinese tragedy people forgot the Indonesian of that garden it affected a lot more Indonesians that did Australia's you know they were left with nothing so I had tried to help the widows of the Indonesians that were killed there and on an ongoing thing it wasn't just yeah once I mean I you know try and help whatever I can but not as part of the royal family justice me [Music] the royal wedding is imminent and the palace is desperate for the forces of nature to come to the party it's now two days before the way to more sleeps it's pouring with rain hmm yeah that could be a problem [Music] we'll have rain Stoppers on the day so whatever work the rain Stoppers a Balinese Mystics the groom's older brother has this mystic already at work as man as the rainiest stopper he's just here seeing how things are going and looking after I guess the the unseen world so that I mean yeah the rain is one thing there's all sorts of other things that you can see that we can't see happy and FS but excited that way [Music] [Music] the wedding day dawns a poor Eeyore booed in only a few hours time 2,000 guests will arrive there with Nastasia n't marriage rituals unique to Bali and the pressure is on for happy who's never even seen the ceremony's before the big day today nervous yeah he didn't sleep so well last night she's pretty nervous she seems really happy is feeling more than wedding day nerves her Muslim background hasn't prepared her for the Balinese rituals that princess as free also found foreign I was background my other daughter Loras Catholic we've all adapted them sure adapt to Balinese beliefs and customs because I know what it's like then for her prince to quarter akka as head of the royal family arrives for a last-minute inspection in another part of the palace princess s3 is under the ministrations of the bridal salon i think i'm placed in the family now I mean I think I'm fully embedded in there and we are some people accepted me some people didn't some people never did this wedding day is going to be an epic for everyone in the royal family there'll be two completely different wedding ceremonies and the first one's about to start Childress is getting dressed for his ceremony which is the first part of the wedding ceremony so in the morning you have what's called the basic wedding so anyone can have this basic wedding in the morning and they can be married with a whole royal family in attendance the mourning ceremony begins as a village priest officiates happy and chocos enact the ancient fertility rites and age-old customary roles for men and women [Music] the mourning ceremony can be quite amusing you walk around and there's a little whip that he whips you with if to walk around three times we have to their exhaust symbolic cooking and if to sell things and he buys things if you just sit on a coconut it's quite involved but I mean some people just push you in the park and sit you down as you stand you up you don't really have to think about it you just do it [Music] according to Balinese tradition the couple are now married but this is no ordinary wedding and grander royal rituals are about to take place [Music] but holding a press conference in the middle of the wedding day isn't a part of royal tradition when the groom is a prince and the bride a star the media won't be denied Prince Noctis has found the right girl for him I went out with a few other girls always felt too much different people this holy Western art then I didn't find that much of a connection like his older brother top goose has also married an Indonesian bride they've always steered towards Asian usually Indonesian women may be that they've seen me and they wouldn't want to put anyone through that my son Brad why you deceive me maybe we saw how hard it was for Mama to adapt tea because it was a huge change she had to learn two new languages and and learn how to speak to different people and seeing her come through the way she did was something that gave us inspiration we both married people who aren't Balinese as well so they have to adapt and they have to change a lot to life here but I guess it's we have a word called judo in Indonesia which just means the one who you meant to be with [Music] a whole new guest list of VIPs is arriving to witness the high wedding old friends Australian console [Music] yeah the bride and groom are now been clothed in the full regalia of the royal house of ward [Music] I'm not too sure about the lipstick no I'm still getting my truck it's not too bad I hate Hamlet for two hours I think it's worse for the girls the bride's crown is layers and layers of gold flowers weigh in kilos been finished [Music] [Applause] like his Brides regalia the groom will wear the traditional high outfit only seen in the palace of abuddin [Music] a prince of the warrior caste he'll wear a royal Khris Khris is symbolic data so they're considered a sacred heirloom they play a very important part in the life of the the palace so each palace will have almost like an armory of different creases being handed down by different generations there's a very mystical very magical element a clear story so you'll ask where they came from and don't be surprised if someone tells you that it flew in a window or popped out of the ground so these types of things happen at certain times in barmy if a royal marries a royal you get carried on the shoulders of your helpers to be big strong guys from the village but if you marry someone who's not from the royal family you have to walk so we've all walked [Music] [Applause] [Music] with her family watching on Happy's becoming a Balinese princess and like her Australian mother-in-law she's taking on the role of a lifetime [Music] this is my destiny the high caste Brahmin priest bestow his blessings and holy water on the couple in this rite of passage prince choc goose is formally accepting his cultural applications I still got a lot to learn but most people they start to learn more after they get married and they have to be more involved the community this process it keeps going on you know as the royal couple embark on their life together in bali princess s3 knows what they'll face happy will find it challenging to be part of Balinese culture you know it's quite demanding for anyone who hasn't been born in and bred with it and for him I guess that he'll be negotiating throughout the whole thing which is also difficult [Music] prince2 quarter akka has continued a royal dynasty with his Australian princess we're all quite good at swapping between cultures I like to encourage the keeping it balances culture today their children have chosen to embrace their royal Balinese heritage and live in the modern world the most important in Bali is the concept of balancing balance doesn't mean strike message Balan is moving [Music] [Applause]

Channel: Real Stories

Views: 5,038,614

Keywords: Real Stories, bali prince wedding, Bali Wedding, Royal Wedding, roayl wedding documentary, real stories bali wedding, real stories full documentary, asian wedding documentary, marriage traditions bali, balinese wedding music, indonesian wedding, happy salma wedding, bali culture, happy salma, TV Shows - Topic, Amazing Stories, Full length Documentaries, current affairs, Amazing Documentaries, Asian Wedding, traditional wedding, bali

Id: oQx9vbxY15Y

Length: 46min 37sec (2797 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 07 2017

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