From a Spa Garden in Bali

At Four Seasons Resort Bali at Jimbaran Bay, the jamu bar served fresh ginger and turmeric drinks. A medicinal garden sat at the center of the spa, and treatments brought together freshly prepared herbal scrubs, Balinese massage, and outdoor flower baths. Kim Collier remembers guests asking how they could take the experience home. That question became part of the story of JAMU.

The People Behind the Practice

Kim and Cary Collier married in Hong Kong in 1990 and spent years living and working in Southeast Asia, a chapter they still call their “working honeymoon.” They worked with hotels developing spa experiences and immersed themselves in Indonesian traditions, from pijat, or massage, to lulur, a Javanese body scrub, and boreh, a Balinese spice-based body treatment.

At Jimbaran Bay, their work centered on making those traditions part of the guest experience. What guests drank, what grew in the garden, and what therapists prepared for the treatment room all came from the same place. As demand grew for products guests could take home, Kim and Cary helped Balinese and Javanese partners establish a spa products and supply business in Bali in 1993. That collaboration marked the beginning of the work that would become JAMU Asian Spa Rituals in the United States.

An early JAMU press sheet records another part of that history. Alongside its list of magazine mentions, it thanks the people and spas that supported the business and notes that a portion of profits went to Balinese villages and charitable organizations.

Vogue

In January 1996, Vogue took readers inside the spa at Four Seasons Resort Bali, where Kim Collier explained the Balinese massage that opened its Lulur Royal treatment. Rooted in a Javanese bridal tradition, the ritual unfolded with a rice-and-turmeric scrub, cool yogurt, and a warm bath strewn with flowers. By May 1998, U.S. Vogue was spotlighting Javanese lulur at the W Hotel’s Away Spa in New York City, an early milestone in Kim’s work bringing the ritual to American spa guests.

Modern Bride

Modern Bride named JAMU founder Kim Collier one of its “Top 25 Trend Setters” for her work sharing Javanese lulur, a scented body treatment and massage rooted in Javanese wedding traditions. The profile captured how brides were making the ritual part of their own wedding preparations, inviting mothers, sisters, and friends to slow down and spend time together before the ceremony.

Condé Nast Traveler

In its July 1999 island issue, Condé Nast Traveler traced Mandi Lulur from its roots in Central Java’s royal bridal traditions to the spa at The Oberoi Lombok. Writer Uma Surana walked readers through the ritual, from a massage with frangipani-scented oil to a sandalwood, turmeric, and rice scrub, finishing with ginger tea in a flower-strewn bath. Alongside the story, the magazine spotlighted three Tara Jamu body lotions available at the W New York’s Away Spa, where readers could take home a piece of the experience.

Sky Magazine

Could a spa treatment make a Las Vegas to-do list disappear? In Sky magazine’s “Spahound” column, the writer put Spa Bellagio’s 70-minute Bali Jamu Massage to the test. The review followed the treatment from firm pressure-point work and skin rolling to long strokes with Bali flower massage oil and a gentle stretch the writer playfully likened to a pretzel.

SPA Magazine

Years after JAMU’s beginnings at Four Seasons Resort Bali, its products and rituals appeared on another Four Seasons spa menu, this time on the Las Vegas Strip. In its 2004 Las Vegas special section, SPA Magazine highlighted the hotel’s Balinese and Javanese body rituals and singled out JAMU Meditative Massage among the spa’s specialty treatments.

From Bali to Whitefish

After returning to the United States in 1998, Kim and Cary established JAMU Asian Spa Rituals, carrying their work in herbal body care, Balinese massage, and spa treatments into a new setting. In 2000, they relocated to Whitefish, Montana, where JAMU began crafting its body care for spas and for people bringing those rituals into their own homes.

Kim’s work with spa teams continued alongside the product line. Developing a treatment meant thinking through what the therapist would prepare, how each step would feel, and how to teach the sequence so another pair of hands could carry it forward. That work still connects JAMU’s body care with Kim’s Balinese massage education.

The Practice Continues

Today, the work that started in Bali lives on in the treatments Kim teaches and the body care JAMU makes in Montana. A therapist learning the rhythm of Balinese massage and someone taking time to prepare a body scrub at home are both getting to know these rituals in the way they were meant to be experienced: through practice.

Balinese Massage Education