Alejandro Llano, one of our wonderful volunteers wrote a paper in which he described the process he used in order to grow mushrooms at Jiwa Damai. He offers valuable information about early cultivation and the role of mushroom in the nature. He also provided details about the nutritional benefits of mushrooms for both for humans and for the environment. We invite you to read more!
This was a first in Bali. A local priest and artist, famous for his sacred paintings and drawings of the various Hindu gods and goddesses, offered to teach our volunteers and participants of the Yoga teacher training the very special form of intricate painting.
After he arrived, he first made some offerings at one of our temples. He then explained the symbolic of the pictures and the meaning of the various details of the gods. Our class was highly focused. As you can see, the result is breathtaking. The paintings will be taken home, framed and are highly valued in Bali as protection.
Here is Dr. Margret Rueffler’s latest creation, a herbal spiral. Up to now, it has been quite challenging to grow western herbs in our tropical climate, at Jiwa Damai in Bali. Here we choose a place half sunny and half covered. After mixing generous amounts of earth with our hot compost, various herbs were plated and then covered with saw dust.
We have White sage, Melissa, Thyme, and many others. If you are passionate about permaculture and want to learn more, let us know!
Dave from the US and Bernardo from Brazil, our volunteers at Jiwa Damai were getting ready for the local Barong festival in our village Banjar Bindu. In order to enter the temple they had to wear a Sarong, just purchased in the market. One of our kitchen fairies, Nyoman showed them how to wrap it properly.
Find our more about our internship and volunteer program here.
We held our first organic market in Banjar Bindu. The focus was to educate about health and healthy food. Therefore, we had a power point presentation which ran nonstop featuring pictures of healthy and unhealthy foods, a great choice of wonderfully fresh organic produce. It was held by our four volunteers, from Brazil, Spain and the US.
The special attraction was the 20 Min Thai Massage given by Bernardo, our Brazilian volunteer.
Find out more about our activities here!
At Jiwa Damai we respect the local Balinese traditions. We do daily offerings to the gods at the temple including blessed water and incense and some food, which is then eaten by the birds or monkeys.
At Jiwa Damai we make coconut oil with much love. You can see the entire process in this wonderful video.
At the same time, you can read more about the different stages of making coconut oil on our blog, its benefits, its use in different recipes and also how are interns are using it. Read more!
See below all the local products that we are offering at Jiwa Damai!
Jiwa Damai and Lagu Damai Foundation Bali offered a health day to the village in cooperation with Kula group Karma day. Everyone helped and participated. It took place in the Bale Banja, which is the communal meeting hall.
A slide show was presented with healthy foods preventing high blood pressure and diabetes. Yoga exercises were included and a buffet prepared by the Jiwa Damai kitchen and Jiwa Damai volunteers, consisting of Balinese chicken, a combination of small picked chicken meat with lots of lemongrass, peppers, onions and garlic and ginger. A huge cabbage salad with our special honey mustard dressing as well as lost of sprouts in there. Green salad was also present.
All this was handed out on carefully prepared banana leaves and found a great echo and every one had great fun. To be repeated...
You can read more here.
The volunteers from Jiwa Damai and the participants of the yoga teacher training from Kula Collective prepared a preventative health care day in the village, in the general assembly hall, with powerpoint presentation and food, as well as exercises. It was wonderful!
If you want to volunteer at Jiwa Damai, find out more here!
At Jiwa Damai we host yoga teacher training groups. Our guest get to experience the beautiful place we have here. You can see some wonderful photos from the garden tour offered by Margret to the Kula Yoga teacher training group. We also have photos from the yoga training area and the final group picture with all the participants in the youga teacher training.
If you are interested in hosting a yoga group, contact us!
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).
