Farmers in Bali Turn to Ancient Water System Developed Through Balinese Philosophy to Expand Rice Production

I Made Chakra Widia, a Balinese farmer, wraps a sarong and sash around his mud-spattered work clothes as he stands inside the open-air stone temple in the center of the Lotudunduh rice fields. Clad in baju adat or traditional dress, he places a small offering of brightly colored flowers on a platter of woven palm leaves and sprinkles it with holy water.

The temple, ceremony, the farmer, and the rice fields are all part of Bali’s ancient ritually controlled farming system called subak. Chakra is the fourth generation of a rice-farming family in Pengosekan, near the village of Ubud. According to him, subak is a very clever system of farming.

He says, “The original farmers really understood how to farm this land. 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.”

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.

Eka Yuliana, the wife of former rice farmers, states, “We believe that nature has power — that everything has a spirit. Our religion in Bali, it’s not about praying, it’s about giving thanks. When we put offerings in front of a tree, we’re giving thanks for the oxygen, the flowers, the fruit.”

Agama Tirtha (Religion of Water), which is Bali’s original animist religion, placed water as the central tenet of Balinese life. In the 14th century, the Hindu Majapahit conquest overlaid Hindu beliefs and while Bali’s religion is now known as Hindu Dharma, many Balinese still refer to it as Agama Tirtha.

Water is involved in every Balinese ritual, be it small or elaborate, ranging 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.”

In the 19th century, Balinese farmers who were faced with the pressure of a growing population and 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.

Stephen Lansing, an ecological anthropologist with the Santa Fe Institute in the United States who has researched the Balinese social systems for five decades, says that the rice terraces were as much a social creation as an agricultural one. The farmers arranged themselves into local village units called subak to build and support an elaborate irrigation system. They had to bring water down from the volcanic lake in the crater of Mount Batur. Subak eventually became the name for the entire system.

To this day, the water continues to pass through an elaborate system of canals, channels, weirds, and drainage ditches, irrigating rice terraces on its journey down to the sea. The ecosystem is characterized by nutrient and biochemical cycles or “pulses,” defined by wet and dry phases. The controlled cycles change soil pH, circulate minerals, stabilize the soil temperature, kill weeds, and many more. Meanwhile, the rich silt from the volcanic slopes brings necessary minerals, and draft animals contribute manure.

Traditionally, the farmers rotated their planting between rice and other crops. While modern rice farming relies heavily on chemical fertilizers and herbicides, the original system functioned without those inputs. According to Chakra, the rice fields were once “like a paradise.”

He says, “I really admire the subak system because I was part of it. When I grew up in this village, there were just rice fields, no roads, no connection to the outside world. Everything was organic, with rich diversity. I think that’s what heaven is. I thought it was the best job in the world to go out in the rice field at night to catch eels, with just an oil lamp, hearing all the sounds of nature, the frogs, and seeing all the fireflies.”

While the subak systems became established across the island of Bali in the 11th century, conflicts over water arose. The Balinese set up a system of water temples or pura tirtha near lakes, rivers, and springs to ensure water was shared equally. Lake Batur is the primary water source and on it sits the mother temple dedicated to the lake’s deity, Dewi Danu.

Participating villages must maintain the water temples and subak system and provide offerings for ceremonies. Chakra says, “Agriculture came first, a few thousand years ago. Then religion came. [Agriculture] was woven into the religion … so it would not be forgotten, it would be preserved.”

According to Lansing, water temple priests took over managing the subak system using what he refers to as “ritual technology.” The priests devised calendars to track growing cycles, organize task groups, and synchronize rituals and activities with the growing season and the Balinese calendar. Planting and harvesting dates are set in consultation with each subak, alternating fields between flooding and fallow cycles to address rice pests and water stress.

Water sharing is decided via a complex schedule of opening and closing dams to distribute water and ensure there’s a balanced patchwork of wet and dry fields so pests can’t spread.

Lansing says that on an island ruled by a caste system, subak is truly a democratic system. Around 1,200 subak groups exist in Bali, with 40 to 500 farmers. Regardless of social status, each farmer has an equal voice and anyone trying to pull rank is fined. Priests can ban a village or individual from taking part in religious ceremonies if they routinely violate subak rules in extreme cases.

The water temple priests are also said to act as intermediaries between the spiritual realm and farming communities. They conduct ceremonies to give thanks as well as seek guidance and blessings from the god for bountiful rice harvest. In Bali, water and rice are associated with Dewi Danu, the goddess of the crater lake, and Dewi Sri, the goddess of rice and fertility. The Balinese belive that if the goddesses are angered or neglected, water won’t flow and rice won’t grow.

Lansing, together with ecologist Jim Kremer from the University of Connecticut, created a computer model of the subak system. During the process, he found that the water temple management provided the optimal balance between low pest levels and sufficient water. During what was called the Green Revolution of the 1970s and 80s, the Indonesian government forced farmers to switch to a fast-growing breed of hybridized rice which needed chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

Local authorities took over the water management, encouraging farmers to ignore traditional planting and harvesting schedules. Plagues of rice pests, fights between subak groups, and water shortages occurred. In 1988, the national government returned control of the subak to the water temples. Even so, according to Chakra, almost all rice farmers in Bali continue to use agrochemical inputs and the hybridized white rice.

Today in Bali, farmers have low social status with the daily rate of a rice farmer who uses agrochemicals equating to USD 1.50, which over a month, is only about a quarter of the monthly minimum wage in Bali. Chakra says that young people prefer to work in tourism so most farmers aren’t being replaced as they age. Most subak members are older than 50. Farmers must also pay land tax, a system that started during the Dutch colonial rule. Farmers often make more money by selling their rice fields.

Chakra’s village today is surrounded by villas and hotels with very few rice fields left. He says he plans to move north where there are little to no tourists and where subak systems are largely still intact. The neighboring village where Eka’s family fields can no longer grow anything with nearby hotels blocking the ancient water channels to their land. Eka says her family has no choice but to rent out the land to foreigners to build a house.

“Before, the sawah [rice field] was a good way to teach kids about the ecosystem, about birds, water, nature and Tri Hita Karana,” Eka says. Now, in school, her young son learns only that subak is an ancient irrigation system. Eka takes him to a neighboring village with an intact system to show how it works. “I try to explain to him that subak is really something special, but it will be changed if you do not keep it,” she says.

Currently, Bali is losing about 1,000 hectares per year to development, mostly for tourism. Tourism also uses up around 65% of Bali’s water, competing with farmers as climate change dries up Bali’s rivers and streams. UNESCO World Heritage only protects about 19,500 hectares of the subak system but that is only part of the total 154,000 hectares.

Lansing and I Wayan Alit Artha Wiguna, head of agricultural extension training in Bali for the Indonesia Ministry of Agriculture, are testing a methane emissions reduction project using low-water, low-fertilizer farming in the subak of Bena village. Trials have shown 85% emissions reduction and 20% higher yields in the Bena subak. Farmers say they’re happy with increased yields and lower input costs, increasing their profits. Nearby farmers appear to be interested as well.

Lansing and Alit want to incorporate carbon credits into the scheme to increase farmer incomes. If they can convince all 80 Bena farmers to use the new method, the unity of the ancient system may persuade all subak in Bali to change, they say.