The Polynesian Art

Beautiful set of natural fibers

Massaging, carving, tattooing… are part of the activities which have a very close original link with the period preceding the arrival of Christianity in Polynesia – the Polynesian way of life during that period, their social organisation and beliefs.

The Taurumi – the Polynesia massage par excellence

The Taurumi is an ancestral art of the Polynesian massaging still present in many Ma’ohi families. This massage is very often

The Taurumi – Polynesian massage

done on children as a preventive measure, in order to prepare them to face life and especially to make them feel all the love that their family has to offer them.

The Taurumi is included in many parts of traditional therapeutic medicine. This ritual allows everyone to maintain spiritual, psychological and physical harmony.

Literally, the word Taurumi means touching; and this is how the treatment can be defined. A contact with the skin thus makes it possible to reach the soul and to soothe it.

The massager who is sometimes called “tahua”, is completely devoted to his “patient”, and listens to him or her.

An ancestral know-how

Once his hands are coated with scented oil (Mono’i, Tamanu, etc) at the right heat temperature, the “tahua” touches several parts of his “patient’s” body (the head, arms, legs and scalp) in order to relax him/her, to release tension and to get rid off the knots caused by our stressful and tiresome daily life.

He therefore transmits to his “patient” a relaxing energy enabling him or her to find balance in their relationship with the environment and relatives.

Different Spas settled among the hotels of Tahiti and Her Islands include this relaxing and reinvigorating ritual in their treatment menu.