August 19, 2025
We were invited for a purification ritual at the family compound of the High Priest and High Priestess today. This is just one of the remarkable opportunities for blessing and healing on this trip, available because of the incredible personal relationships our tour guides, Made Surya and Judy Slattum, have throughout Bali. Most tourists who come here never get to have these kinds of experiences, never get invited into the places we’re being welcomed into. This is truly Bali behind the mask.
After we have have our purification blessings, we’ll be visiting Made Surya’s 300-year-old family compound for a delicious Balinese lunch that Surya and his family stayed up late into the night preparing for us. Then, in the afternoon, we’ll visit a healer who specializes in treating muscles and bones so that anyone in our group who wants a check-up can have one. Finally, we’ll stop at Judy and Surya’s art-filled home outside Ubud on our way back to our hotel for a writing session.
It will be a full day, one of the fullest on our tour, but there is something about the expansiveness of time in Bali that makes every activity stretch out and feel unrushed. Even though we’re doing several things in a row, each visit, tour or blessing has a feeling of spaciousness to it.
After breakfast, we loaded into our vans, carrying our sarongs and temple scarves, required for any visit to a temple or when receiving a purification. Once again, we were instructed to wear a bathing suit under our clothes.
When we arrived at the High Priest’s family compound, we were welcomed with incredible hospitality: warm smiles, trays of bananas. oranges, and starfruit, fresh bottled water. There was ample time to put on our sarongs and temple scarves and to look around at the incredible statues, altars, and plant life thriving there.
I was particularly intrigued by this:
Surya gave a short talk about the High Priest and how he evolved into his current role. Ida Pedanda Gede Mas Dyatmika was an intellectual and a college professor for years before he decided to take on the mantle of high priest, something traditional in his Brahmin family. No one had taken up this mantle in his family for 70 years until he decided to commit to the incredibly rigorous course of study required to become a high priest.
Surya explained that he only speaks to Pedanda in high Balinese, one of three Balinese languages, the one reserved for the highest caste. It was a fascinating explanation of where we were and who we were having the honor to be blessed by.
We went up in groups of three to be purified. Surya instructed us on how to receive the blessing.
This was my turn:
There was a lot of radiant joy after our blessing.
After we were all blessed, there was still a lot of time to visit, to enjoy the gardens, to take pictures with the High Priest and High Priestess. In Bali, there you never get the feeling, “Okay, we’re done here. Now we go.” No, we lingered. People changes out of their wet bathing suits. Savored the flowers. Chatted quietly. Here I am chatting with the High Priestess, Ida Penanda Istri Mas Pidada. She is the most joyful person I have ever met.
Here’s the High Priest and High Priestess together.
Finally, Surya said it was time to go—but first he had us gather for a group picture.
After many warm goodbyes, we drove a few blocks to Surya’s family home. The lunch his family cooked for us was fantastic, as I knew it would be. While he gave the group a tour, explaining the classic features of a Balinese family compound, I took 45 minutes to do some planning for my writing classes for the rest of the retreat.
After leaving Surya’s family compound, we visited Made Parta, a traditional healer who specializes in treating muscles and bones, for another few timeless open-ended hours. We were basically there for as long as it took for everyone who wanted a treatment to be seen.
When you visit a Balinese traditional healer, there is no paperwork, no health insurance forms, no health history questionnaires. There is no recitation of symptoms. Made Parta just worked barefoot, squatting on the floor. He looked, he felt, he saw, he manipulated our bodies, massaged us and laid on his hands.
Our treatments took place on an open air platform, a bale (ba-lay,) with everyone looking on or sitting nearby. These were definitely not private consultations. Surya assisted by translating comments and questions (going both ways). He held people’s hands when the treatment was painful, and whispered encouraging words when people needed some reassuring support.
As members of as our group got treated on the bare tile floor, a steady flow of Balinese men, women and a child streamed in to the compound, both on foot and by motor scooter, carrying little offering baskets with their donations tucked inside. They set these baskets on a small table in a corner and waited their turn. This was their health clinic, where they came when they dislocated a bone, fell off a motor scooter or had a sports injury. The Balinese also go to western doctors as needed, too, but it is perfectly normal for them to consult traditional healers. The two often refer to each other—Made Parta to an orthopedic surgeon and vice versa.
Whenever locals arrived, they were seen right away, and our group waited until the next opening for Made Parta to treat one of us. Some of the treatments lasted only a few minutes; others took significantly longer.
From a western point of view, I’d describe Made Parta as an incredible intuitive gifted chiropractor, though Surya says spirit tells him what to treat and how to treat it. I found the whole scene remarkable and so refreshing when I consider the broken medical system in the United States. Not only was he effective, Made Parta clearly loves what he does. As And squatted on the bale, treating person after person, a beaming smile never left his face. He was clearly a joyful, gifted man.
Our final stop for the day was Judy and Surya’s incredible home. It’s filled with amazing art from their travels, and I really wanted my students to see it:
It was a beautiful, creatively-charged atmosphere to write in. Because we’d had several busy days in Ubud, I had everyone choose one experience that they’d had in the past 48 hour to write about. I wanted to give them a chance to digest, to integrate, to record a significant moment. The resulting stories were diverse, moving, emotional and filled with unique experiences.
I loved watching my students write and hearing what they had to share. The writing group was definitely cooking, a wonderful way to travel, a wonderful way to ground. And a great way to bond the group.
It was another rich, full day in Bali.
Tomorrow, we move to our third and final destination, Munduk, in Western Bali, in the mountains—my favorite location of all.