Travel to Indonesia: Bali

Bali attracts so many tourists that it, not Jakarta, has the only airport in Indonesia served by an American airline. That would be Continental, out of Guam. (It's a pretty weak link, and one that testifies as much to America's disconnect from this huge country as to Bali's powerful charm.) The tourists pretty much stick to themselves, in a beach-oriented enclave developed near the airport just for them. The magic of Bali lies not in those beaches, however, but in the island's agricultural landscape and in the rituals associated with the rice crop that dominates it.

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A travel agency in Ubud. The signs are suggestive of Bali's importance in the tourism industry worldwide. At least some of the tourists venture away from Denpesar and the Bukit peninsula to come visit Ubud, which lies on the apron of volcanic soil that spreads south from the island's central volcanoes.

Irrigation water is essential to the development of the island's rice crop. Not surprisingly, water is sometimes treated with veneration, as in this spring, at Pura Tirta Empul, near Tampaksiring.

Unchecked, water on these volcanic aprons cuts precipitous channels, in this case a channel working its way upstream as a waterfall erodes headward.

The Balinese are masters of capturing such streams and bringing them out of the ravines and onto flatter land. The work is done by villagers organized in subaks, irrigation-user organizations. There are about 1,200 subaks on Bali. The average one has about 200 members, each member with about half an acre of sawahs, or paddy land. Subak membership is compulsory for all landowners within the canal command.

If necessary, they will bring the channels through tunnels carved in the soft volcanic material.

Finally, palm logs will be cut to control tiny flows of water, proportional to the amount of irrigated land the channel serves. To minimize conflict between water-users, the subak appoints a kelian munduk, a water-distribution overseer.

Here, water is brought across a main road in a hollowed-out palm log, from which it cascades off into the paddies on the far side.

Looking back from the other side of the road.

The rice crop is begun in a nursery like this, in Bali called a pemulihan. Almost all of the island's rice today is a high-yielding variety, rather than the traditional padi bali.

Prior to transplanting the seedlings, the paddies are puddled, so that water will not percolate through them when the paddy is flooded.

A freshly transplanted crop, deep in muck. Assuming (pretty safely) that this is a high-yielding variety, it will grow to a maximum height of about 30 inches--just about half the height of the traditional crop. It will also mature about a month faster, say in 120 rather than 150 days.

A canal runs along the top cultivated contour.

A flight of terrace steps. The water moving through them is led from top to bottom.

Countless pictures might be taken like this, some steeper, some flatter, but all involving the careful control of irrigation water running down the volcanic slopes.

A larger paddy, quiet enough to mirror the palms.

The paddy fields are dotted with literally thousands of temples and shrines, both large and small, dedicated to Dewi Sri, the rice goddess or goddess of the rice. Fred Eiseman, Jr., writes: "No Balinese deity is better loved and more frequently and fervently worshiped than Dewi Sri."

A shrine perched near a rice paddy immediately north of Ubud. Different offerings are made at different times in the crop cycle, but midway through the growing season an offering called buluyag is made. It consists of rice cooked in coconut leaves, plus flowers, rice wine, and holy water.

A variant.

Yet another variant, this time an offering placed at a small dam built by the Asian Development Bank to improve water management.

The ADB handiwork. Looks good, but the farmers say the ADB built it along with associated concrete ditches; the ADB can therefore maintain it.  Bad news: maintenance isn't in the ADB budget.

High on the slopes of Mt. Agung: the island's most important temple complex, Pura Besakih, stands in the face of strong winds blowing steadily from the sea.

Close-up of the tiered roofs.

A different style of roofing, but also at Pura Besakih.