At Jiwa Damai we offer holistic body therapies, individual therapy sessions as well as massages and body care.Our guests enter this beautiful room through a traditional Balinese carved wooden door. Come in and relax!
facilities_health room1_b
health room
One of the activities we offer to our guests is taking part in a cooking class with our Balinese cook. From our Balinese cook you will learn about local dishes and ingredients, pick vegetables in our garden and learn how to prepare the dish. We mostly use fresh organic veggies from our permaculture garden.
This is the recipe for our chicken dish. You'll need the following ingredients: Chicken, onion, garlic, ginger, chilli, lemon grass, salt, pepper and oil.
These ingredients are all mixed together and ground. The chicken is plugged into very small pieces, only the white meat is used. The tiny chicken pieces are tossed into the uncooked herbal mixture and well mixed. Its taste is utterly delicious. The chicken is served with rice and veggies.
Cooking
cooking_2
Organic food
Penjor_2
For this years Galungan Celebration our head gardener Ketut built together with two of our volunteers the panjor which is erected at the entrance gate to Jiwa Damai.
A huge Bamboo is cut and then decorate with all details along the stem and the top. A little alter is created to give offerings to the gods. The panjor remains put for 3 weeks and looks very wonderful.
Penjor
Tradition demands, that each house in the village places one in front of their entrance.
Penor_3
Baby
This is Soul, the first child born at Jiwa Damai. This picture is taken in Jiwa Damai at age 1 month.
The bay was born in a natural underwater birth, so called Lotus birth, where the placenta remains attached until it dries up by itself, which happened the second day after the birth. The Mom was assisted by her husband and Ibu Robin, a famous Balinese midwife.
In this picture one of our volunteers is taking care of the one month old Soul at Jiwa Damai.
Baby_2
Here, Margret is visiting Miquela and Soul, which had grown tremendously for age 4 months, in upstate New York.
Baby_nyc
Margret
Margret at Jiwa Damai permaculture and retreat center, where she takes care of all aspect of managing, running and expanding the gardens as well as supervising the teamwork .
During the last very strong rainy season lots of damage was done on our premise at Jiwa Damai. The heavy rainfalls caused lots of erosion, especially at the banks of the small river which is flowing through the permaculture gardens. We had to take care of this erosion and stabilize the river banks. To reduce the powerful impact of the torrentious rains on our lands, we reinforced the borders of the river with sand bags.
Wira, Maha, Suecha and one of our volunteers, Fred from Canada, are doing this extremely demanding heavy work of shoveling the river sand into bags and placing it on the banks. Eventually there will be four layers of sand bags on top of each other.
erosion (1)
erosion
erosion (2)
Today we want to introduce you to our three wild Balinese dogs at Jiwa Damai: Salju-snow, Angrek-orchid and Blackie.These dogs do not have the same background like our Western dogs which originate from wolfs.
They are pack dogs and our watch dogs, roaming free on our 4 hectare permaculture garden. Basically they are very difficult to train and they are instinctive hunters. They announce each person coming to Jiwa Damai with barks. They are not like Western pet dogs. Therefore we do not recommend to touch them unless you know them for a few days.
Dogs at Jiwa Damai (2)
Dogs at Jiwa Damai (3)
Dogs at Jiwa Damai
Awakening to the sounds of nature
After spending my time in Bali's tourist centre of Ubud it was a relief to arrive at Jiwa Damai. Upon descending the stairs into Jiwa's dining area I was immediately overcome by the tranquil surroundings. Smells of frangipani and other flowers abound as do the vibrant colours that go with them; greens, yellows and pinks that one rarely finds outside of the tropics. Terry, one of the resident Woofers, showed me the expansive gardens and led me to a Lumbung situated in the heart of the organic garden.
Awakening to the sounds of nature (1)
As you can see by the photo a Lumbung is essentially a bamboo hut with no walls. Instead of walls a mosquito net hangs to offer some protection from those irritating, and often sleep-depriving, insects. It was so exciting to get to bunk out in nature, protected from the rain and insects but still able to feel the gentle and often cooling mountain breeze.
Awakening to the sounds of nature (3)
I awoke the next morning early to the sounds of roosters off in the distance, running water from the river nearby and various birds up in the treetops. It was magical. Another of Jiwa's local residents, Orchid, the cat, had snuck into the Lumbung the night before and was sleeping near my feet. Needless to say I welcomed my new friend.
Awakening to the sounds of nature (2)
Lying there I felt a deep sense of calm and an appreciation for the serenity that is Jiwa Damai. Of course, there was much work to be done, but it was nice to really take in the environment before starting the day!
Berish Bilander
A special highlight at our first week volunteering here at Jiwa Damai was an invitation from the staff to attend two temple ceremonies. We left here late afternoon with 2 cars, but in order to attend we had to dress in traditional Balinese clothes. Our guide for the evening and the President of Lagu Damai Foundation, Wira, brought sarongs, udengs (headpiece for men), ribbons and a blouse for us to dress in. Finally, Astri picked some beautiful flowers that we wore behind our ears; now looking a bit more like the locals, we were ready.
Intaba and Daniel with Balinese hosts, dressed and ready to go
After a good hour drive we arrived at the first temple, Pura Ulun Danu Batur, the main sukas and water temple in Bali. Out of our car windows we could see myriads of people with offerings on their way to the temple.
Locals making their way to bring offerings to the temple
We walked through a stunning carved gate to find ourselves in a big courtyard where a band was playing music. A group of mostly older men performed a warrior dance with symbolic spears.
Traditional Balinese dancer inside the temple
It appeared we were the only foreigners that were welcomed to the inner- temple, which we can attribute to our Balinese friends.
Once inside we watched as offerings were presented to the Gods. We kept a small box made out of banana leaves containing flowers and incense in front of us.
Various offerings presented throughout the ceremony
Sitting on the floor we meditated for brief periods throughout the ceremony. At the end of the ceremony we took some rice out of a silver bowl, put it on our forehead and then ate a bit. Afterwards, we were blessed with sacred water. The sun had already set while leaving the temple and the full moon came up behind Mount Agung; the scenery was just breath-taking.
We set off to the second temple ceremony at the Mother Temple of Besakih. The Besakih Temple is the largest and most important temple in Bali and is at the base of Mount Agung. We had the honor of experiencing a second ceremony there as well before heading back.
Beautiful Mt. Agung with moon rising up as we were leaving
We were very tired after the adventure and slept in our car seats the whole way back to Jiwa Damai.
New blogs_room2
These are the new rooms, that we recently built here at Jiwa Damai.
The rooms are quite basic, with a beautiful stone floor and lots of light.
New logs_room
Come by yourself and check it out !
Jiwa Damai is a hands-on, socially responsible organic garden and retreat center.
We are located amidst lush tropical vegetation in the heart of Bali (20 mins from Ubud).
