Skip to main content

Day 4: Subaks, Dwijendra University, Goa Gajah Buddha Temple

The day began with a 7.30am breakfast, and at 8.45am, we left the cottage to see rice fields and subaks. Our host for the day was Prof. Widaya and Dr. Sedana (from Dwijendra University). We met at a subak, and they explained to us some of the features of the subak system:
  • Tak tak: the allocation of water between farms. It consists of blocking water from the main drainage canal to a field for a specific time period. The water is termed as borrowed from the downstream farmers
    • Tak taks also determine how much each farmer contributes to the subak for communal ceremonies, rituals etc.
  • Subak heads: elected every 5 years; he is an unsalaried official who helps coordinate a subak
    • Its contact with government, private millers market, nonprofits etc.
    • Water allocation during meetings
    • Conflict resolution about water allocation
    • Rituals, and inter-subak coordination
  • Calendar: Balinese have multiple calendars: religious, market, production calendars all which overlay atop one another:
    • Determine when to plant, transplant, harvest, weed etc.
    • Determined by a priest, and info shared during subak meeting
  • Water comes from the lake => feeds into rivers => which feed canals => which feed individual farms
  • Problems:
    • Low incentive for young people to engage in farming: prefer to work in the tourism sector where they earn more and it's less hard work
    • Competition from cheap imported rice from India, Pakistan,
    • Poor infrastructure
    • Poor knowledge of agribusiness
  • Farmers market their rice to private millers individual; a kg of rice = 4, 800 rupiah; barely enough to cover costs => cycle of poverty
At Dwijendra Uni
  • We had a lecture with the rector of Dwijendra Uni, "the most beautiful rector"
  • we ate very spicy food that made our eyes teary and we had our first taste of salak, or snake fruit
  • We participated in a gamelan; I played the gong; this was another eerie presentation. It was satisfying to have the opportunity to do this
  • We also participated in a Balinese cultural dance
  • We saw how Balinese traditions are passed to generations: written on palm leaves by etching markings
We went to a Buddha temple at Gaja Goah
  • Interesting that one of the shrines (cave) was carved by hand
  • The temple is not a single building but a collection of structures with pools, shrines, offering places etc.
The day ended with a dinner with friends at one of the restaurants, some beers (Bintang) bought from a minimart and a swim in the cottage pool.
All in all, a fun and interesting day
Snake fruit aka salak

Etchings for passing down traditions

God of knowledge

After gaining some knowledge, it's all smiles

Dwijendra Uni

Gajah Goa

Show your sarongs
Goa Gajah Temple

Labels:
Location: Denpasar, Denpasar City, Bali, Indonesia

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Analyzing a carry trade proposal: Short USD, go long on bitcoin

I recently completed an assignment for an International Economics Policy class which entailed designing a carry trade. A carry trade is a financial transaction that involves borrowing (short) in a low interest currency, and lending (go long) in a high interest (yield) currency. For instance from Bloomberg 's rates for bonds, this would involve borrowing in Swiss francs (rate is -0.15 percent) and lend in New Zealand dollars (rate is 2.83 percent). All else remaining equal, the carry trade would yield a rate differential of 2.83+0.15 = 2.98 percent. Note: this is an unusual case where the interest rate we are borrowing from is negative; usually, this would involve subtracting the first interest rate from the second. For instance, borrowing in Japanese yen (0.04 percent) and lending in Kiwi dollars (at 2.83 percent) would yield 2.79 percent as profit. My carry trade in this case involves borrowing in USD at a rate of 2.33 percent, and buying bitcoins. But, what, you may ask, is the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Jane and Michael are restored

Jane and Michael had always known that they would get married since they were young. But when they did get married, everyone was astonished, even though everyone had anticipated it. What shocked everyone really was the simplicity of their wedding. Jane's parents were wealthy and had bequeathed their only child a large portion of their wealth. "I do not need it mum, please tell dad to give it to charity," she had protested when her parents had announced they would name her the sole recipient of the wealth. "God is providing for us, we do not really need all that money. What would we do with it?" Jane's mum had cried on the phone for three minutes and protested at the injury their child was doing them. "Your dad will be heartbroken… Honey, don't do that to him, his poor heart will fail him." When her dad heard it, he had not talked to her for a week. When he did, his voice was pained, distance, "I do not like to see you and Michael li...
Post a Comment
Read more

What Africa may learn from Trump presidency

President-Elect Trump successfully ran under the banner of making America first, reducing foreign 'interference' and trying new ways to work with partners on the international scene to solve some intractable challenges. The first tenet, in my opinion, is something that should interest African nations, because of the collective acknowledged viewpoint of making Africa work for Africans. Looking back at the powers that scrambled for Africa more than 125 years ago to present day, we see challenges that have been brought about by the fact that Africa still remains a playground for western powers. The Democratic Republic of Congo fails to move forward due to the strong interests that keep fueling violence in order to continue the parasitic extraction of the vast resources with little benefit to the people of Congo. The CFA countries of Central and West Africa still depend on precolonial arrangements with France to manage their monetary policies, stealing the initiative fro...
Post a Comment
Read more