UBUD, INDONESIA, August 26, 2024 (Monga Bay): Inside the small, open-air stone temple in the center of the Lotudunduh rice fields, a farmer wraps a sarong and sash around his mud-spattered work clothes. Suitably dressed in baju adat, or traditional dress, to approach the Gods, he places a small offering of brightly colored flowers in a platter of woven palm leaves on one of the tall carved shrines and sprinkles it with holy water. The temple, the ceremony, the farmer and the rice fields are all part of Bali’s ancient, ritually controlled rice farming system called subak. Subak, says I Made Chakra Widia, is a very clever system. Chakra is the fourth generation of a rice-farming family in Pengosekan, near the village of Ubud. “[The original farmers] really understood how to farm this land,” he says. “They understood the interaction between soil, water and weather.” Nature was seen as a partner in the growing of food, not a resource to be exploited, he tells Mongabay. This links with Tri Hita Karana, the central philosophy of Bali’s unique form of Hinduism, which maintains that the spirit realm, the human world and nature must be in balance for human prosperity, health and well-being.

Bali’s original animist religion, known as Agama Tirtha (Religion of Water), placed water as the central tenet of Balinese life. The Hindu Majapahit conquest in the 14th century overlaid Hindu beliefs, and while Bali’s religion is now known as Hindu Dharma, many Balinese still call it Agama Tirtha. Water is used in every Balinese ritual, small or elaborate, from daily offerings to cleansing and purifying ceremonies to major festivals. “The beauty of Agama Tirtha is that it is social, cultural and religion together,” Eka says. “Water has energy — powerful energy. It’s purifying, everything in life is about water. Water keeps us alive, grows food so we can eat. Water is holy.” So when facing growing population pressure in the ninth century, Balinese farmers who needed to expand rice production turned to a water system. They developed irrigated stepped rice terraces to deal with the mountainous terrain and spread this technology across Bali. To this day, the water continues to pass through an elaborate system of canals, channels, weirs and drainage ditches, irrigating rice terraces on its journey down to the sea.

Much more at source.
https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/in-bali-water-temple-priests-guide-a-sustainable-rice-production-system/

Post Views: 396