April 9th, 2005
Rice is an essential part of almost every meal, and rice production and cultivation is of central importance to traditional life on Bali. The climate and volcano-enriched soils of Bali are ideally suited for growing rice. Terraced rice fields were a dominant feature of what we experienced as we moved from Padang Bai to central Bali, and near Ubud and probably one of the first things you think of when you think of Bali. The fields have been described as an "engineered landscape" and to see it in real life, you must appreciate all the hard work and man hours involved in creating an area suitable to farming.


Padi is the growing rice plant--hence paddy fields and the rice field is called a sawah.

The cultivation of rice remains much the same way it was in Neolithic times. The Balinese solution (dating from as early as the 9th century AD) for growing rice on such steep terrain was to create an ingenious and complex network of irrigation channels, tunnels and aquaducts to catch and divert water from higher mountain sources.


You can see all the terraces on the steep moutainside. We drove way up this winding road and caught some amazing views.



This road was one of the steepest roads we've ever driven up. The drive was awesome! It's very hard to see in this pix, but that whole mountain on the left is terraced.




And at the top we saw not only views of the ocean out in the distance but also saw what we called 'meditation huts' that were seeminly in the middle of nowhere.


Kel enjoying the view from the meditation hut.


This is the 'meditation hut' roof from the inside, laying on your back in the middle of the floor.


Kel and Jer enjoying the view together.

And as we drove further up into the mountains we stopped to take other pictures and we were met by these two little boys who ran up the mountian road to meet us...



...while these women ran down the mountain road in flip flops (it made quite a noise) to meet us to sell us their wares...


Nothing like being accosted in the middle of nowhere by a hawker trying to get you to buy what they've got to sell!




As we drove we saw some impressive displays on landscape engineering, which is made even more impressive when you learn how the paddies are grown.


Padi Bali is the generic term for several strains of traditionally grown rice, a tall strong plant with a growing cycle of 210 days. Beras is the uncooked grain of rice and nasi is the cooked rice, as in Nasi Goreng (which I have an excellent recipe for this!)


A Paddy field is a basin of packed earth, reinforced with intertwining grassroots. Irrigation water is let in and out of each field individually thru a small gap in the earthen wall that can be open and closed with a hoe. The water is drained off thru channels that empty into rivers.




Up close of water being drained into channels and diverted away.


And after we stood out under an umbrella to get the 2 previous shots, this little boy came out from his shelter to try and whine us into buying pencils...why we would need a pencil...The Balinese are fairly destitute, especially out in the smaller villages, and are not against getting the kids involved in the begging. Look at that face, and if you could've heard his whiney voice...it breaks your heart.


Just as the water had a system for moving throughout the fields, the Balinese also have a system for keeping birds out of the fields. They would string an elaborate maze of twine connecting all of the fields and tie white flagging to different parts of the twine. When the wind would blow, that would scare off the birds.


But then they took it a step further. We all know that birds would get used to just the flagging being tied in the fields, so they would add one more dimension. A woman would sit in a little hut during the day, and pull on strings that were strung out into the fields.


You can see different stages of rice growing in the fields.

A small corner of the the field is planted with seedling rice. Once that rice is of considerble size, it is then lifted and replanted, shoot by shoot into the bigger fields. After that it's easy living for a while, as the rice matures. The walls in the fields need to be kept in working order, and the fields are weeded, but generally this takes very little time and allows folks to do other things, like practice the gamelan, or do woodworking, etc...


Finally, when harvest time comes around the whole village will come out to help.


Gathering the rice.


Threshing the rice.

Rice planting is strictly men's work but everybody takes part in harvesting.

Legend has it that a group of Balinese farmers promised to sacrifice a pig if their harvest was good. As a bountiful harvest time approached, no pig could be found and it was reluctantly decided that a child should be sacrificed instead. Then, one of the farmers had an idea. They had promised the sacrifice AFTER the harvest. If there was always new rice growing, then the harvest would always be about to take place, and no sacrifice would be necessary. Since then, Balinese have always planted one field of rice before harvesting another.

© December 6, 2008