Rice

At Tabanan's Subak Museum we learned everything you might need to know about rice. A subak is a collective of rice farmers that manage the rice fields in a area. We followed the flow of water from the high mountain Lake Bratan, through springs and man-made underground tunnels, culverts and ditches, diverting water to each individual terrace. The process of construcing the terraces, planting, flooding and draining, to harvesting the rice has been the same in Bali for almost 1500 years. Even today almost all of it done completely by hand. Modern rice, growing next to native, black, and red rice terraces, has 3 cycles a year compared to native or traditonal rice, which has 2 cycles a year, the basis for the Balinese calendar. There are shrines throughout the fields for offerings to the rice goddess - Dewi Sri, loved by the Balinese, as the protectress of rice and the provider of food. The Balinese wouldn't think of having a meal without rice! The Jatiluwih ricefields were stunning in the mist and evening light.