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| The Small dam a.k.a Temuku to divide the water flow |
To enjoying the nature of Bali, you will often to see a beautiful rice terraces. To keep the rice field are fertile and watered enough, the farmers in Bali has a traditional organisation and system called SUBAK.
The word “Subak” was originally found in Kediri-East Java a Hindu Kingdom in 14th century and then brought to Bali by the Hinduism when this Kingdom was conquered by the Moslem and kept until nowadays.
Subak which is mean irrigation,has been used for hundred of years in Bali. This system aims to ensure that the water is fairly distributed during the dry season. The system is ancient and the first reference to a "Subak" in text occurred in 1022!
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| The Creek |
Subak plays a very important part in the life of the Balinese people who own rice farm. Around 1300 Subaks are now in Bali and each of them has at least 200 members, depending on the size of the plots involved. The chiefs of Subak is called "Kelian Subak" they are elected by the members. The subak members have equal rights, regardless of caste or title or the size of their land holding. The subak meets monthly, under the leadership of the elected head of the subak and together they decide all issues concerning rice cultivation e.g. time for planting, harvesting, offerings, ceremonies, repairing dams, fertilizing, etc.
Kelian subak can also give or withhold permission for new rice terrace construction, and is responsible for ensuring compliance with government regulations.
In every region of Subak has a temple called Pura Bedugul/Pura Ulun Carik/Pura Ulun Siwi which is linked to the Ulundanu Temple at Batur lake, Kintamani. At pura Bedugul, the farmers worship the goddess of rice names Dewi Sri.
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| The Bedugul Temple |
Subak is to ensure the irrigation system work, to get the irrigation from the sources such as dams and lake. They are cleaning the creek to make sure the water is flowing well and divide it in a fair amount to each member's field. In a planting season, usually they help each others to plant the rice or other crops so in that region the plant will be planted uniform in a time, as well as when the harvest time come.
Even though the Subak members is not came from the same villages, but their rice field is in one region of landscape, the familiarity and the mutual assistance so names "Gotong Royong" in Indonesian language is always be kept. They work together to get maximum result on harvest day.
The Government of Tabanan Regency, which is know as a Rice Barn regency in Bali has achieve this traditional organisation with build a museum called Museum Subak, where its located in Sanggulan countryside about 2 kilometers eastern from Tabanan downtown or about 20 kilometers western of Denpasar. Museum Subak keeps any kind of utensils relationship with activities of farmer in Bali. In this place you can learn how and why the “Subak” organization is very important in Bali.
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