The Subak System of Balinese Rice Terraces
Indonesia
Bali is renowned for its stunning rice paddies as Indonesia is one of the world’s foremost rice producers, cultivating year-round. These green terraced landscapes are an authentic insight into Balinese culture.
SUBAK
Bali has five rice terraces that have associated water temples covering an area of 19,500 ha. A traditional cooperative water management irrigation system, called subak, is centred around these water temples and dates back to the 9th century. However, from the 11th century, whole watersheds of rice terraces were managed by the water temple networks.
The subak system represents the Balinese philosophical concept of Tri Hita Karana, where the realms of the spirit, the human world, and nature are brought together in harmony. The gods in their water temples gift the rice; nature offers fertile soil and water; and subak, the cooperative Balinese social system controls the water, altogether bringing harmony and shaping the landscape. Ultimately, subak is a component of temple culture and religion.
Subak was granted UNESCO World Heritage Status, in 2012, as it greatly influences Bali’s cultural landscape and it is ecologically sustainable, providing both independent and equal farming practice. This has led to the Balinese being the most productive rice farmers in Indonesia irrespective of its dense population and the challenge of supporting it.
"The subak system represents the Balinese philosophical concept of Tri Hita Karana, where the realms of the spirit, the human world, and nature are brought together in harmony"
THE WATER TEMPLES
People engage in water temple rituals, encouraging harmony between people and their environment and dependence on the Earth’s natural life-sustaining elements.
The first site is the Supreme Water Temple of Pura Ulun Danu Batur which is situated on the edge of Lake Batur. The village people of Batur maintain the temple and are aided by assistance from over 250 subaks.
The second site is Lake Batur which is located in a volcanic caldera, believed to be the residence of Dewi Danu, the Goddess of the Lake. The deep and large lake supplies the groundwater which amplifies the rivers serving the canals and irrigation. The four volcanic lakes in Bali are thought to be the overarching source of all subak water.
The third site is the subak landscape of the Pakerisan Watershed which is Bali’s oldest known irrigation system. In the north of Ubud, near to the village of Tampaksiring, is one of the oldest Bali temples built in 962 AD around the Tirta Empul holy mountain water spring, the source of the Pakerisan River. The Pura Tirta Empul temple’s holy water is used for purification rituals in bathing pools lined with 13 sculpted spouts providing the holy spring water. Pilgrims pray and enter the water where they bow under the water of eleven spouts, leaving the last two only for funerary rites. The inner courtyard of the water temple is a place for silent prayer, surrounded by sculptures and bright offerings at particular times. A holy spring is also present and seen as the heart of the temple grounds.
CLIMATE, RICE & LOCAL FARMING
The combination of Bali’s volcanic landscape providing fertile soil and the wet tropical climate provides idyllic conditions for crop cultivation. Both mountain and flat terrace rice cultivation occur as river water has been directed into canals and springs, which passes through the water temples and then downhill onto the rice paddies, irrigating the subak land.
In Bali, small-scale cooperation farming of around 50 to 400 local farmers manage the water from one source, out of the 1200 water collectives, and maintain and grow Balinese rice without the help of any fertilisers or pesticides using the traditional subak irrigation system.
THE TEGALALANG RICE TERRACE
North of Ubud, the Tegalalang Rice Terrace is an agricultural portrait and iconic destination, included in the Cultural Landscape of Bali Province UNESCO World Heritage Site. It slopes down from the traditional Tegalalang village, and across into the distance, with narrow, muddy walkways enabling the terraces to be explored. Water flows in small channels in between the terraces. The rice terraces are greenest in the dry season from early April until October before being harvested.
The fourth site is the subak landscape of Catur Angga Batukaru, a sacred landscape of lakes, mountain peaks, and forests alongside villages and some of the oldest rice terraces in Bali, written about in the 10th century writing.
The fifth site is the Royal Water Temple of Pura Taman Ayun, which is the largest and most architecturally distinguished water temple. Positioned in the centre of the former largest 19th century Balinese kingdom of Mengwi in the Regency of Tabanan, all the subaks of the kingdom received holy water from the mountain lakes. It is the largest expansion of the subak system, demonstrating the greatest congregation of Bali’s subaks.
Overall, the five subak sites of Bali’s Cultural Landscape of water temples and rice terraces demonstrate the interconnectedness of nature and culture, connected by water temple networks, villages, multiple subaks, rice terraces, forests that protect the water supply, and volcanic lakes.