All You Need To Know About Tirta Empul: Our Awesome Experience At The Water Purification Temple
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what to know about tirta empul holy water purification
One of the highlights of our Bali trip was going to this holy water temple, (locally know as Pura Tirta Empul Temple), near Ubud. We loved the experience for its authenticity and cultural significance in Balinese traditions. It’s a beautiful site and the experience is so unique, it’s definitely one to remember! After reading reviews about it, we would also highly recommend getting a guide. This will make your visit so much more informative, we learnt loads about Bali’s Hinduism, and certain customs such as not using certain fountains reserved for the dead! If you can, go with Kadek, he was sitting outside the gates to the fountains and has the biggest smile and gentlest manner. We had such a lovely time with him we came away with such a serene, restorative feeling that we often think about his simple sense of positivity and gratitude to this day!
It’s not far from Gunung Kawi or Tegalalang rice terrace and doesn’t take long to do so definitely worth adding if you’re doing a full day tour around those parts. We really enjoyed the whole purification ritual and are sure you will too so read on to find out all you need to know about it:
When you arrive you’ll pay a small fee per person and will be given a sarong to use in the temple and water. There are changing rooms where you can change into your water sarong and dry off after (we had our swimming costumes on underneath but don’t think this was necessary). This is a communal locker room with a separate section that’s divided by sex (but also communal) that you can get changed in if you like. Most women had their sarong tied behind their neck, and men had it around their waist.
It’s worth a walk around the rest of the temple area before you get in as well just in case you don’t want to walk around with wet hair after (the water is pretty cold). I saw the biggest Koi fish of my life here! You can also see the holy spring just behind the pools where the water comes from in the inner courtyard.
At the entrance to the locker room (which you also pay a small fee for), you can also ask for an offering for something like £1 extra which we highly recommend so you can have as an authentic experience as possible! We also think this might be why we were approached by Kadek in the first place. I’m sure there’s also private tours you can take to explain the surrounding area if you’re interested in that too (such as the rice terraces and coffee plantation), but we were happy to go with a local guide just for the temple.
Although the monkeys here aren’t as cheeky as in Ubud monkey forest, it could still be wise keeping your stuff a locker so it doesn’t get wet/misplaced either.
the water purification process
When you are ready to begin, if you have an offering (or even if you don’t), you can start by placing it on the alter just inside the entrance of the purification pools, and then sit just in front of it for a moment of meditation/prayer. We were advised to ask for permission to be cleansed, set our intention for what we wanted to gain out of this process, request a wish for others, and finally give thanks for the opportunity.
Then, head over to the left and begin at the SECOND fountain. This is because the first is reserved for local minority groups out of respect. However, Balinese people, and Hinduism in general, is so open and accepting, if you do begin at the first fountain it’s not seen as a disrespect (in fact, you’ll see many people who do so simply because they don’t know). This is one of the reasons why we recommend getting a guide who can explain all of these things to you.
Once it is your turn at the fountain, close your eyes and make a wish for something you’d like to attract or let go of (or simply say “Om” three times), splash the water over your face three times, tap it to your mouth three times, and then put your whole head under for as long as you’d like.
Repeat this process at all the fountains but leave the last two out as these are the ones historically left to wash corpses in. Whilst this is no longer in effect now, people will collect this water to wash the deceased with at home etc. so, again, out of respect they should be reserved for this purpose. Personally, we also felt it would be some kind of bad omen if you doused yourself in a fountain reserved for the dead! Of course, many people don’t know this so it was also in constant use. Again, if you do use these fountains by accident no one will judge you for it (but they are easy to recognize because they’re shaped like tombstones).
Once you are done with the pool on the left, you can head over to the one on the right. These hold the last two fountains that you’ll use. The first one will cleanse you of any bad psychic and ancestral karma, leaving you fresh to start a new cycle. The second is reserved for your biggest wish/destiny and will help to align your chakras in order to achieve your highest self. When you are done using the same process as before, you can take a final sip of the water. Don’t forget to give your thanks and send a wish for the blessing of others too!
Once you have finished, you can return to your spot in front of your offering and finish off with one final meditation. Again, give thanks to the Gods/Universe/whatever you believe in for this process. Be very careful when walking around wet because it’s quite slippery! Also, we went in the afternoon and it was almost sunset by the time we finished so I was pretty cold afterwards! It might be a good idea to bring a towel/light layer with you to help warm up after you’ve changed back into your normal clothes.
Note: your guide can also take photos of you the whole time! He asked us if we had a camera and gave him our GoPro to record the whole process so that’s pretty cool if you’re going alone. Also, it can get quite busy so we would recommend going early in the morning if possible (even though we never had to wait for anything and the amount of people didn’t damper our experience, it even quite added to it somehow).
We really loved coming here and did feel totally renewed and zen afterwards! We will for sure go back if we’re ever in Ubud again. A combination of introspection for however long the process takes you, coupled with the invigorating fresh water is a combination that does leave you feeling spiritually cleansed afterwards, no matter what you believe in.
We shared a final hug with our guide, took a photo together and ate a local desert he gave us. You can tip your guide as much as you feel like. He left such a lasting impression on us we still think about him and the experience to this day (sometimes if I get sad/frustrated I think “what would Kadek do?” hahah). It’s an experience we would highly recommend to everyone visiting Bali, and from here you can also visit the awesome Gunung Kawi that’s just down the road, which is one of the oldest temples in Bali!
So there’s our Tirta Empul water temple experience. Have you ever been to Tirta Empul? If so, we’d love to hear how your experience went in the comments below!
