Ring of Fire: An Indonesian Odyssey - The Ten Year Voyage of Brothers Lorne and Lawrence Blair - Travel Video.

Set of 5 Movies on 3 DVD Discs. Originally seen by millions of public television viewers, this exciting series documents the ten-year voyage of two filmmakers, brothers Lorne and Lawrence Blair, through the world's largest and least known archipelago - the exotic, mysterious islands of Indonesia. These islands form a chain of active volcanoes that arc down and around into the Pacific to form the 'Ring of Fire.' 4 Hours. The Blair Brothers sailed with pirates aboard their black-sailed schooners in search of the Bird of Paradise, struggled through rapids and deep jungles searching for elusive nomadic tribes, witnessed veiled forms of human sacrifice and found themselves drawn into ten years of danger and discovery in a magical land where ancient myths still flourish. Their intimate encounters with the vanishing masters of tribal wisdom were to lead them from a physical adventure, into a deeper, more personal quest of self-discovery. "An absolutely fabulous video series." AL THE SPICE ISLANDS: Following in the footsteps of the great 19th Century naturalist, Alfred Russell Wallace, the Blair Brothers embark with the piratical Bugis tribe on a 2000 mile journey through the Spice Islands in search of the golden-tailed Bird of Paradise, the symbol of Eternal Life. Aboard a black-sailed schooner they encounter storms and doldrums, sultans and transvestite priests, pearl-divers and python-hunters, before finally reaching the Aru Islands, close to New Guinea. Their odyssey with the Bugis tribe (who gave the word 'bogeyman' to the English language) starts the Blairs on the inner journey which leads them ever deeper into the forgotten wisdom of the island peoples. The Blairs sail to Komodo and film the giant, carnivorous lizards of the island whose tiny human population is descended from the people banished by the neighboring sultans of Bima to eke out their living on "Dragon Island." On the island of Sumba, they witness a veiled form of human sacrifice by equestrian warriors. Master weavers of magical textiles, the Sumbanese still live by ancient beliefs, ritually keeping the balance between the "Merapu" gods of the sky above and "Nyali," the Sea Goddess of the world below. The brothers journey 50,000 years into the past to live with Asmat headhunters in New Guinea. They eventually reach Bali where they build a home in a village of farmers, artists and mystics. In the shadow of Java's constantly erupting volcanoes, the Blairs descend from the crater of the newly erupted "Child of Krakatoa" and encounter a world of medieval courts, mystical shadow puppet plays, forgers of magical swords, healers with supernatural powers and whole communities ruled by the powerful "Spirit of the South Seas." Back in Bali, they meet such sages as the master artist Nyoman Lempad, who was to die a conscious death on the day of his choosing at the age of 116. And among the Toraja people of the Celebes highlands, they share in the massive funeral rites of the last king of the tribe which believes its ancestors came from the stars in sky ships. For eight-hundred miles, through untamed and uncharted rainforest, the Blairs seek the last of the nomadic Punan Dyaks, the free-roving masters of the interior, the "dream wandering" tribe believed to no longer exist. The brothers struggle inwards, plagued by torrential rain, quicksand, leaches and virulent insects. Eventually, they find and live with the Punan Dyaks where they are initiated into the spiritual mysteries of the "dream wanderers." Lorne and Lawrence join the dance of the hornbill and get tattooed with the symbol of "Aping" - the Tree of All Life. This, their shaman explains to them, they will now bear, wherever they may get to amongst the tribes of man, as a reminder that all life forms are part of a single tree.