For centuries, a bride in the palaces of Yogyakarta and Surakarta spent the forty days before her wedding in seclusion, scrubbed each day with lulur — a paste of rice flour, turmeric, sandalwood and jasmine — until her skin glowed gold.
Sukma Spa's Javanese Lulur Ritual is a two-hour version of that tradition. It begins with a frangipani foot bath and a full-body Pijat Jawa massage in warm candlenut oil. The lulur is then brushed on and allowed to dry before being rubbed away, taking dead skin with it, and a cool yoghurt wrap calms and softens. You finish in a flower bath in the treatment pavilion, looking out over the rice terraces, with a cup of hot ginger tea.
Made fresh each morning
Our therapists grind the lulur, the boreh spice paste and the jamu tonics by hand each morning, using turmeric, ginger and lemongrass from the resort's garden and rice from the paddies below the hill.
Treatments are offered daily from 9:00 to 21:00. Couples can take the Couples' Pavilion Journey side by side.