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In Bali, water temple priests guide a sustainable rice production system

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UBUD, Indonesia — Inside the small, open-air stone temple in the center of the Lotudunduh rice fields, a farmer wraps a sarong and sash around his mud-spattered work clothes. Suitably dressed in baju adat, or traditional dress, to approach the gods, he places a small offering of brightly colored flowers in a platter of woven palm leaves on one of the tall carved shrines and sprinkles it with holy water. The temple, the ceremony, the farmer and the rice fields are all part of Bali’s ancient, ritually controlled rice farming system called subak. Subak, says I Made Chakra Widia, is a very clever system. Chakra is the fourth generation of a rice-farming family in Pengosekan, near the village of Ubud. “[The original farmers] really understood how to farm this land,” he says. “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, he tells Mongabay. 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. “We believe that nature has power — that everything has a spirit,” says Eka Yuliani, the wife of (former) rice farmers. “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.” Bali’s…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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