During the 1960s, an anti communist purge swept across Bali and transformed the paradise island into a frantic slaughterhouse. Toxic political hatred fuelled a genocide that turned neighbours into executioners and saw tens of thousands vanish within months. Decades later, state enforced amnesia suffocates the land. The true horror isn't just the thousands butchered, it’s the terrifying silence guarding their graves and a collective trauma trapped forever beneath a beautifully

The Jiajing Emperor, who ruled China’s Ming Dynasty from 1521 to 1567, is often remembered for his sadistic and tyrannical reign marked by cruelty, decadence and obsession with immortality. His relentless pursuit of eternal life led him to engage in dark and brutal practices, one of the most notorious being his bloodlust for a substance called “red lead.” This concoction was allegedly made using the menstrual blood of young virgin girls.

Pura Kehen rises from Bali’s highlands like an ancient vow carved into stone, once a place where royal officials swore loyalty before the fire god Agni. Those who broke their oaths were believed to be marked by a lingering curse passed through bloodlines. Beneath the ancient banyan’s watchful roots, where offerings once signalled obedience and silence was treated as its own form of confession, the ground still feels bound to what was promised upon it.