Munene, the journey...

We went to a couple of temples and the famous UNESCO world heritage site in Jatiluwih.  Beautiful terraces at Jatiluwih, part of UNESCO World Heritage Site Wiwik, who was part of getting the rice terraces of Bali to become a world heritage site, and her students, took us through some of the concepts of water temples: The first temple we went to was a disease temple. It was a supporting temple for the main temple. Its purpose is to cleanse people of illnesses. Legend has it that a king who was sick was healed after getting some water from the area. It was then built to help the surrounding communities get healing A priest will take people through the healing process We went to the main water temple built on the base of the mountain to help farmers not have to go up the mountain to perform rituals We washed our hands, spat out water three times, washed face three times, and the head. This is a sign of giving th...

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, mark...