pasung - punished by the gods

Bali is a tropical vacation paradise, but there is a dark side just a few tourists get to see. People with mental illness are chained by their family members, they are often tied up or locked up in shocking living conditions. Around 20 million people in Indonesia have a mental illness. Help get only a few. Because mental illnesses are still associated with evil, the sick are chained by their relatives in the forest or locked in cages. The 4 million inhabitants of Bali with approximately 7,000 patients are estimated to only a handful of available psychiatrists . Overall, less than five percent of the mentally ill are treated in Indonesia. Traditionally, many Indonesians believe that evil in the head can be expelled by a healer. They have no money for treatment and often there is no way to treat their members professionally. There are people chained endure decades. The Indonesian Ministry of Health estimates that there are currently around 30 000 people with a mental illness in Indonesia locked away.

Christian Werner is a freelance photographer based in Nordstemmen, Germany. As a teenager he developed his interest in photography while travelling to foreign countries. Since 2009 he’s studying photojournalism at the University of Applied Sciences in Hannover. His main interests are social diversity and global political issues. The areas of interest is mainly the arabic world and culture. Since 2012 Christian is represented by agency laif.