Irrigation Systems in Bali

Religion and ritual have been central to the subak system for hundreds of years. According to Dr Wayan Windia of Bali's Udayana University, this unique form of irrigation was created by Rsi Mar- kandya, a Hindu holy man. He is said to have first visited the Indone- sian island with 800 followers from nearby Java some time in the late 8th century.

"They cleared forest and established Taro village, in the Gianyar regency, about 50 kilometres north of present-day Denpasar," says Wayan, referring to Bali's capital. But in order to grow rice on Bali's rich volcanic soils, the immigrants had to cut terraces and an irrigation system into the steep face of the mountains. Rsi Markandya's followers formed into cooperatives known as kesuawakan. This was the origin of the word subak, from sawah, the name given to the first irrigated fields, says Wayan.

By 1023, the system had become culturally widespread, encouraged by royalty who obviously saw the results of irrigation in improved rice crops."Ancient inscriptions suggest that subaks, and the water temple system that governs them, had become well established by 1071," Wayan says. The fact that the system is still in operation today is a tribute to the pioneers that devised it. The predominant religion in Bali is Hinduism, with more than 90 percent of the island's 3.5 million people considering themselves

Hindu. Balinese Hinduism, however, has evolved independently from the form practised in India, along the way incorporating elements of ancient beliefs that predated the arrival of Hinduism.

"Rice cultivation is very important for the Balinese," says Ketut Suparta, whose family has been farming rice in western Bali for as long as anyone can remember. Ketut, his eight siblings and their families still help his father on their ancestral paddies."Not only is rice our main food," he says,"it also has an important ceremonial role in the religious rites that govern much life in Bali."