Rice and Ritual: Dewi Sri's Gift
By: Fred B. Eiseman, Jr.

One can only use superlatives to describe the beautiful irrigated rice fields of Bali. Cut into the walls of the steep slopes and valleys of Bali’s many volcanoes, the terraces, often only a few meters wide, tumble down from the ridges like lines on a giant contour map. After planting, the yellow green of the young rice begins to appear above the silvery pools of water and the seedling is reflected as if by a giant mirror. Two months later the terraces are deep, rich green and a little later the rice matures to a golden yellow. After harvesting the straw is burned leaving ashy stubble and dried-out, cracked ground.

The rice paddies are also marvels of hydraulic engineering, Streams are dammed far uphill from the fields, and the water is directed by hand-built aqueducts to fields far away from the dams. Weirs and smaller dams divide and re-divide the streams, settling basins allow the silt and sand to drop out, and finally the water reaches the highest terraces.

Oryza sativa has been under cultivation for six or seven thousand years, and rice is the staple diet of one-fourth of the world’s population, including the 2.5 million Balinese. In Bali a complex governmental and village infrastructure organizes and supervises rice growing and irrigation, and a large body of religious observations, prayers, ceremonies, offerings, festivals, and obligations penetrate all aspects of Balinese rice farming. Rice and rice ritual occupy a major portion of the time, energy, and money of the people of Bali.

Whereas Westerners do fine with just one word for rice, the Balinese need at least four. Padi is both Balinese and Indonesian for rice on the stalk, whence the English word, “paddy,” which can mean stalk rice or an irrigated rice field. “Jijih” is the Balinese word for unmilled rice that has been separated from the stems (gabah in Indonesian). “Beras” is the High Balinese word for milled, uncooked rice (the Indonesian word is the same). The common Balinese word is “baas.” And cooked rice is “nasi.” So important is rice in the Balinese diet that most people just use the word “nasi” to mean food-any kind of food-assuming, naturally, that the meal will consist mostly of rice. This habit applies to other Indonesians as well. Another term that is sometimes used for rice is merta. This comes from the Sanskrit word, “amertha,” meaning “not dead,” and the letter “a” was latter dropped and the meaning changed somewhat to refer to “that which is essential for life”-rice.

Rice is further classified as ketan, if it is sticky, glutinous rice, “injin” if it is black, and “barak” if it is red. These are the only colors of rice that grow in Bali. But white, red, and black represent only three of the four sacred color-yellow is missing. The story is that Siwa, God as dis-solver of life, brought rice to the Balinese from heaven through the agency of a bird. He brought rice of the four sacred colors, but the manifestation Batara Wisnu Sangwerti ate all but a little of the yellow rice. Wisnu planted what was left under the eaves of his house, and it grew into the turmeric plant, which the Balinese call “kunyit.” When the Balinese need yellow rice, as they do for many offerings, they have to dye the write rice yellow, “kuning,” using turmeric. Yellow rice is most important in offerings to be given on the day Kuningan.

As recently as 1970 economists were concerned that Bali’s burgeoning population would cause a crisis in the food supply, since all the available agriculture land was already under intense cultivation. At that time Bali had to import 10,000 tons of rice each year. But the crisis has not come to pass. Starting in 1969 the International Rice Research Institute, an international organization headquartered in Los Banos, The Philippines, began to introduce new, high-yield, disease- and insect-resistant strains of dwarf rice. Further research was conducted by the Indonesian agriculture department at Bogor, Java. Now, 15 years later, almost 90% of all Balinese rice is of this new “miracle” variety. Despite a population growth of 300,000 in the last ten years, Bali is now a net exporter of tens of thousands of tons of rice annually.

In a purely emotional sense, the introduction of the new rice to replace the old “padi bali” is a pity. “Padi bali” is a beautiful plant, about 140 centimeters (55 in.) high, almost as tall as a man, with a graceful, nodding head. When harvested, the old style rice is tied into bales and carried to the home rice storage barn, “jineng”, on the heads of the women who cut it. It is a picturesque sight, and the harvest rituals, to be described subsequently, culminate a traditional series of practices that are beginning to die out as the new rice spreads.

The new strains are usually noted IR, standing for International Rice Research Institute, or PB, peta baru, referring to the Indonesian strains developed in Bogor, or by the symbol “C.” In all cases, the letters are followed by numbers indicating the particular strain. At the moment IR36 is the variety recommended most strongly by the Department of Agriculture. The Balinese call it “tiga enam” (simply, “36”). There is an even newer variety appearing now, named Beras Sedani. The Balinese say it doesn’t taste very good. It is an aesthetic disaster compared with the old style “padi” Bali.

How good is the Balinese average compared with that achieved with Western technology? In the rice growing region of California, everything is done by machine: lasers are used to precisely level fields, airplanes sow the seed and spray and fertilize the crop, and enormous, electronically controlled machines harvest the rice. In 1979 California averaged 7,23 tons per hectare (2.9 tons/acre). California, with one crop per year, out-produced Bali (two crops per year), on a crop-by-crop basis, but the reverse is true on an annual basis. Labor- intensive Bali requires somewhere around 750 man-hours per hectare per crop, whereas California needs about 17.

Because of Bali’s Dry season, from about April through September, rice fields have to be irrigated. The mountainous geography, deep gorges, steep slopes, and rugged terrain of the upland areas made it impossible in the old days for an individual to provide irrigation for his own fields all by himself. So, groups of neighboring farmers banded together and cooperated to tap the water sources to bring the water to all of their fields collectively. Present day “subak” organizations are the descendants of those who originally tapped these sources.

A “subak” is a group of rice farmers having adjacent fields, “sawahs” that share a common water supply. “Subaks” control irrigation, repair aqueducts and dikes, and prevent theft of water and the inevitable problems that arise among neighbors. Today there are approximately 1,200 “subaks” in Bali, averaging 200 members each, with an average field area of about 50 hectares. Everyone owning land within the subak’s area must become a member. Members vote periodically (the period varies from 5 to 10 years) for a head, called “pekaseh”, or “kepala subak.” The position is unpaid, except that the kepala subak is usually given extra water for his fields and sometimes even extra land. Meetings are held periodically, at which attendance is compulsory. If a meeting is missed a fine of up to Rp 250 is levied.

The head of the subak has several assistants, among the most important of which are the “pengliman,” who us charge of work projects, and the “kelian munduk”, who oversees water distribution. There is a standing joke that the best man to pick as “kelian munduk” is the one who owns the lowest rice fields, since he will see to it that he gets his share of water, and thus everyone in between will get theirs too.

The subak decides on all matters pertaining to dates of planting and harvesting, appropriate times for and kinds of offerings, ceremonies to be held, control, cleaning, and repair of dams, canals, and weirs, proper times for fertilizing and using insecticides, and the amount to be used, and where to procure seed for the next crop. And every “subak” maintains its own small temple out in the fields where the principal rice ceremonies are held and where the deities associated with reside when invited to earth. There are always many other small shrines and temples scattered throughout the “sawah” areas and almost always near dams and weirs. But these are individual shrines, or at most, are erected and used by small groups of farmers.

The practices vary considerably, but some “subaks” are themselves associated into still larger irrigation groups, which perform the proper ceremonies at the sacred mountain lakes, which the Balinese farmers believe to be the ultimate sources of their water. Perhaps the most important pan-subak ceremonies designed to insure a steady supply of irrigation water. Some subaks make regular pilgrimages to this temple just before the irrigation season begins.

Indonesian agriculture ministry officials work with the “subaks”, but the two are careful to maintain separate identities. Each of Bali’s eight districts, “kabupaten”, has an official from the department, the “sedahan agung.” Under the “sedahan agung” are several men, called “sedahan yeh”, who oversee irrigation matters. The department also maintains a staff of field to guarantee floor prices, and in charge of transporting, milling, and storing rice for government stocks. Generally speaking, the government and the subak organizations get along efficiently and with a minimum of friction.

No Balinese deity is better loved and more frequently and fervently worshiped than Dewi Sri. She is the female aspect of rice, and as with all other things in the Balinese universe, she is both male and female. Her dual image, usually called Dewa Nini (nini is ”grandmother”), is invariably present in the “sawahs” at harvest time and adorns every rice barn. The figures are made out of rice stalks right in the field. Fifty-four stalks for the female figure and 58 for the male are tied together to form the two figures, so that the rice stalks form a conical skirt. The tie point is the pinched waist, and above the waist the ends of the stalks are formed into a triangle and decorated as a face. In the fields of new rice the figures are made from cut stalks. But in the “padi bali” fields the dewa Ninis are made from stalks still rooted in the earth.

This double triangle or hour glass figure is called “cili”, from the word “cantik”, “beautiful,” or “benda kecil,” small thing.” It is repeated endlessly in Balinese offerings of every imaginable sort, and in paintings, statues, woodcarvings, and every kind of decoration. Woven of coconut leaf, painted, plaited, chiseled, or hammered into metal, the “cili” is the symbol of Bali.

Rice is more than just a useful crop. It is life, “amertha, and, as such, an enormous and complex set of rituals accompany every stage of its cultivation. These may be from the tiny offerings, “penampeh”, placed in the corners of a field to keep animals away, to a huge, village-wide, multy day temple ceremony, ngusaba nini, involving weeks of preparation, thousands of elaborate offerings, and hundred of people. No hospital patient in intensive care is watched more carefully than rice as it develops, and no effort is spared to nurture and protect the crop.

The rice farming cycle begins about 25 days before planting. An auspicious day is chosen according to the rather complex systems of Balinese calendars, both the 210-day Pawukon cycle and the Hindu-Balinese Saka, a lunar calendar. The first event is the hoeing of the sawah, called “ngendang”, “opening up.” Before the “tambah” (a hoe with tines like a rake) is used to break up the dry ground and stubble of the old crop, a small offering, “peras tulung”, is carried into the field on a tray. The offering, called “kewangen”, contains plaited coconut-leaf shapes, a Chinese coin, and the ingredients of the betel chew. After a prayer, the essence of the offerings is wafted toward the field with a small basket, called a “saab”. The offerings are placed on the ground and sprinkled with holy water. And always a bit of rice wine and palm brandy are spilled on the ground for the evil spirits, the “butas” and “kalas.”

Only then can the hoeing begin. When this is completed the “sawah” is flooded with five to ten centimeters of water and plowed with a wood and steel plow, “tenggala”, pulled by one or two cows. Water buffaloes aren’t often used in Bali, but one does see some gasoline- powered tractors nowadays. If weeds are a problem, the plowed fields may be dragged with a scraper, called “lampit”. This may be a special steel device or sometimes just a banana log impaled on the tines of a hoe.

If there is a pilgrimage to be made to Lake Beratan or one of the other sacred lakes to present offerings for a good supply of irrigation water, it takes place at this stage. Not many farmers in the Denpasar area do this any more, but it used to be common. Sometimes a ceremony, called “mapag toya” is held when the first irrigation water comes into the “sawah”, but I did not witness this.

Meanwhile, a seedbed, “pemulihan”, is prepared by enclosing a few square meters of the irrigated field with dikes and surrounding the area with woven coconut leaf or bamboo mats to keep animals away. Practices differ in preparing the seedling nursery. With ”padi bali”, the seeds of rice used are left attached to the stalks and are laid by hand, one by one, on the moist ground, which is later flooded. With dwarf rice the seeds are broadcast by hand into the already flooded seedbed. In either case, the seeds are soaked for two days prior to planting in order to start germination. And in both cases a small offering is planted in the seedbed before the seeds are laid down. The soaked seeds, called “binih”, are brought to the field in a bamboo basket.

The planting of the seeds ceremony, “ngawitan ngurit”, is accompanied by an offering called a “suyuk”, and a small “kewangen”, similar to that described in the hoeing ceremony. The more elaborate “suyuk” is a small tray containing flowers and plaited offerings made from coconut leaf, with some colored rice and rice cakes. As with the hoeing, a favorable day is always required for starting the seed germination.

The seedlings are allowed to grow for 20 to 25 days in the nursery. Three days before they are transplanted, the fields are fertilized with trisodium phosphate (TSP), and then, just before planting, with urea. Transplanting the seedlings is a group activity, again occurring on a favorable day. A team of men pull the seedlings from their nursery bed, “ngabut”, place them in bunches on round bamboo trays, and carry them to the nearby field that has been flooded, smoothed, and fertilized. Before any seedlings are planted, a ceremony called “ngewiwith” is performed. Offerings are placed in one corner of the “sawah”, prayed over, and then nine seedlings are planted next to the offerings, one in each of the cardinal directions, one in the center, and one in each of the intermediate directions. This symbolism of the nine directions, “nawa sanga”, occurs in a great many religious ceremonies.

Now the entire team starts the planting proper, “ngeberan”. The trays of seedlings are set upon the slippery mud ooze and pushed from place to place as the barefoot men thrust two to five seedlings into the same hole that they poke into the mud with their fingers. Holes are spaced one hand width apart and are lined up in neat rows. The planters are usually hired for the occasion.

During the first month after planting, ceremonial practices vary considerably. Some farmers make a small offering called “pecaruwan pengulapan suang-suang” before the rice is 17 days old and another small one called “bubuh tabah” at the age of 17 days. Others make a small peneduhan offering at 20 or 21 days. After 35 to 40 days another urea fertilization is recommended.

The Balinese call a period of 35 days a “bulan”, which is usually translated into the English “month.” But this is kind of confusing, because they have another word, “sasih”, that means a lunar month. At the end of the first 35 day “month” a major offering called “nasi warna” is made, consisting of the four colors of rice. Some “subaks” require a 42-day offering called “esan”, usually just a woven coconut leaf decoration planted in the field. At 55 to 60 days the last urea fertilization is made. At two months, at a ceremony called “sayut nagasari”, an offering called “bulayag” is carried to the fields. This consists of rice cooked in a small woven container of coconut leaves, plus the usual flowers, rice wine, and holy water.

Now the rice begins to ripen as the grains start forming on the heads, “padi leg.” The rice is said to be pregnant, “beling”, as the ears fatten. And this calls for renewed vigilance and care, for it is now that the birds and mice constitute a threat to the crop. Scarecrows, “petakut”, are erected. Bamboo poles are stuck into the ground all over the rice fields, and long strings are fastened to them. Then plastic bags, bits of old clothing, anything that flaps in the wind, is fastened to the strings so that, from a distance, the field look like masses of vibrating trash. Sometimes the strings are all run to a little elevated enclosure in the rice field in which a small child sits. He pulls their ends, animating the dance of a thousand plastic bags. Older men and women walk through the field shouting. Many of them use a bird-scaring device called a “kekepuakan”, which is a meter-long section of bamboo cut almost all the way through longitudinally. When held by the uncut end and waved, the two halves clap together, producing a loud, hollow noise. Windmills whir, often activating ingenious noisemakers of bamboo that bang and clatter as the blades revolve.

Usually small offerings containing lime, called “penampeh, are placed at the corners of the fields to keep out animals and insects. Modern farmers spray on insecticides and rodenticides. The brown rice hopper, “wereng”, is an especially dangerous pest and can ruin a crop almost overnight.

Now the new rice is starting to turn yellow as harvest time approaches, but the “padi bali” still has another month to go. A three-month ceremony with offerings, called “miseh”, is usually held, but its importance is dwarfed by the upcoming harvest rituals. Two weeks before harvest, irrigation stopped, and the fields are allowed to dry up. Just before harvest almost all farmers hold the “mabiukukung” ceremony in the fields. The name comes from the offerings of coconut leaf that are woven into shapes that look like bananas, “biu”, or the cylindrical beehives, “kungkungn”, that are common in Bali. This ritual is more elaborate than any thus far.

The rice harvest, “manyi”, or “gampung”, involves a lot of work by a large group of people. The two different kind of rice require two very different techniques. Dwarf rice cannot be moved from the field because the grains fall of the heads. Traditional rice is always baled and carried home, to be stored in the rice barn and threshed as needed.

“Padi bali” is cut stalk by stalk by a crew of a dozen or more men and women, chattering noisily as they work under their huge bamboo hats in the shoulder high grain. From a distance all you can see are the hats. The rice knife for “padi bali” is called “anggapan”. It is almost concealed in the right palm-they say that this is done so that the rice will not be frightened by a big knife. The slightly curved metal blade, about 4 by 10 centimeters (1.5 by 4 in.), is held in a small horshoe-shaped wooden frame. A small bamboo stick that is perpendicular to the plane of the blade and frame fits next to the palm to steady the knife. The knife itself is held between the index and second fingers of the right hand. To cut the rice, a stalk is grabbed by the thumb and index fingers above the blade. Then, by rotating the wrist counterclockwise, the knife-edge is brought into contact with the stalk, and the third, fourth, and little fingers below the blade wrap around the stalk as it is severed from the lower part. In this way each stalk can be cut with one hand only. The cut part is about 50 centimeters long. It is transferred to the left hand, and the process continued until the left hand is full, making a bungle called a “cekelan”.

A roving gatherer takes the handful and combines it with nine more, making a “tengah”. This is handed to a nearby man who is in charge of making the lovely round bales, called “suwun”, or “depukan”. The baler collects 10 “tengah” to make a total weight of about 10 to 12 kilograms, tis a bamboo string around the bunch below the heads, and pounds the stalk ends being up, heads down. The bales and the ever-present Dewa Nini are carried home at the end of the day on the heads of the ladies. Men carry two bales at a tim suspended from the ends of a flat bamboo stick, “tegen”. The harvesters are either paid in cash or are given one out of every ten bales.

The new rice, on the other hand, is cut close to the ground by the handful, using a sickle-shaped knife called an “arit”, the handles of which are often seen stuck in the back of the pants of rice farmers. A canvas sheet is spread on the ground nearby, on top of which a board, “penatapan”, is propped up in a frame. The board is long enough to accommodate several threshers at once. Women grasp bundles of rice at the bottom end and whack them down over the board. Three or four whacks are usually enough to dislodge all of the grains in the handful. The grains fall in a pile beyond the board, the straw is discarded, and a new bundle is threshed. The straw is pilled up and burned, which returns valuable minerals, especially calcium, to the soil. In rice harvesting season the slopes of the mountains are enveloped in smoke for days.

Unless the resulting “jijih” is to be used for home consumption it is usually sold right on the spot, often to government buyers. Thus, although there are always Dewa Ninis nearby, there is no picturesque carrying home of the bales, nor are any of the interesting procedures carried out that have to do with blessing the rice barn and storing the newly cut “padi bali” therein. These will be described subsequently.

The largest “subak” rice ceremony, “ngusaba nini”, is held in the “subak” temple in the fields. Some groups hold it just before harvest, some just after. It is a thanksgiving to Dewi Sri for the gift of herself. Sometimes “ngusaba nini” is a village-wide ceremony, held rarely and requiring months of preparation and involving hundreds of people.

Most “ngusaba nini” ceremonies are not nearby so elaborate. Sometimes slightly more elaborate ones are alternated with rather small ones, just as is done in the case of temple anniversary festivals,”odalans”, in many areas.

When all was ready, a “pemangku” sat down on the mats behind the offerings inside the temple and invited God to descend and receive thanks. Then he dedicated the offerings to God’s pleasure, wafting the essence of the offerings toward the many shrines with the usual basket. He did not forget the “butas” and the “kalas”. Rice wine and palm brandy were spilled on the ground for them too. And smoldering incense helped the prayers travel to God and His various manifestations to whom the shrines within the temple were dedicated. Members of the “subak” sat behind the priest, and all prayed in the Balinese fashion, thumbs against the forehead, fingers of both hands pressed together in front, a flower held between. Then the women carried some of the offerings around to the various shrines, placed a few in each, and sprinkled holy water on the shrines. Finally, all the men paraded around the inside of the temple carrying the big rice cone and shouting loudly in thanks. The cone was returned to the ground, and it and the suckling pig were cut up for distribution to the “subak “ members.

The final ceremony of the rice cycle, “mengetam”, is only performed in areas where “padi bali” bales are brought home to be stored in the rice barns. A rice barn, “jineng”, has a very steepy sloping roof and is always built far up off the ground on pillars to prevent access by rodents. The little door is reachable only by a long bamboo ladder. The storage area is, so to speak, the second floor, and the space below is nice and shady and is often used for lounging, storage, or other purposes. There is almost always a horizontal structure built between the posts that can be used as a sitting area or a bed.

When the rice barn is elaborately decorated. A tall bamboo pole, “penjor”, is set up nearby, with coconut leaf decorations on top and an offering on the end. Plaited palm leaf plaques, “lamaks”, and colorful pieces of cloth are hung from the rice barn door. Baskets of offerings, called “soda anyar”, and “peras pengambian”, are prepared for the inside of the barn storage area. And some small triangular offerings, called “segehan”, are made for the “butas” and “kalas”. Then the Dewa Nini is carried up to the barn door on a lady’s head and handed to another person inside, who places it beside her sisters, left over from previous harvests. The offerings are spread out on top of the newly cut rice bales, and prayers of thanks are offered.

There is not as much straw in “padi bali” fields as in dwarf rice fields, because some of it is carried home to the barn. But the “padi bali” fields are burned too, often enveloping the rice growing areas in impenetrable smog for weeks on end. Although three crops of new rice could conceivably be raised per year, experience dictates that the fields should be allowed to rest for a few months, or else a legume crop such as soybeans is planted to enrich the soil. The growing season for “padi” Bali is too long to permit more than two crops per year, sometimes only one.

Like most rice-eating people, the Balinese insist upon having their rice white, with husk and germ removed-and with them, almost all of the fat, protein, and vitamin B1 (hence the prevalence of pellagra here some year ago, caused by vitamin B1 deficiency). With “padi bali”, removal of the brown parts is usually, but not always, done at home by removing a small bundle, “sepingan”, from a bale, and pounding the rice, “nebuk”, with a two-meter-long pole. The rice is either put on the ground or, if the family has one, placed in a long wooden trough, the “lessung.” A wooden pole with a steel bottom is used first, the “buntar”, followed by an all-wooden pole, called a “lu”. The pole is pounded alternately with the left and right hands in a rhythmic cadence until the husk and bran are stripped off. Then the pounded rice is put on a large bamboo tray and winnowed by tossing it into the air and letting the wind blow off the chaff.

Most new rice, and some of the traditional rice, is milled in a factory called a “slip”. There are 1,448 of them in Bali, so one is never very far away. The “slips” buy rice outright, mill it, and sell the resulting “beras” in 100 kilograms sacks. Alternatively, an individual may bring in his own “jijih”, wait in line, and have it milled on the spot for about Rp. 5 per kilogram. The mill usually has a large concrete area out in front upon which the rice is sun-dried before milling.

The mill itself consists of gasoline or diesel powered counter-rotating wheels with special abrasive coatings that wrench the outer parts off the seed while doing a minimum of damage to the white part. The rice passes through the wheels and then falls though a stream of air as it descends into shaking screens below. The screens and the air separate the products into four parts. The large, light husks are blown through a big pipe to the outside of the mill. They are good for nothing but fuel. Inside the mill, three streams emerge from the machinery. One is the white rice, “beras”, ready for the pot. A second contains the very light, feathery bran and attached germ. This material, called “oot alus”, is widely used as a pig food. The third stream consists of somewhat coarser fragments of the bran and the finer fragments of husk. It is called “oot pesak” or “oot kasar”. It may be used for pigs if one cannot afford the better “oot alus”. Often it is burned or just thrown away.

“Beras bali” can be easily distinguished by sight from grains of PB or IR beras. “Beras bali” is a short-grain rice, while the newer dwarf rice is long grained. “Beras bali” usually sells for a premium price because it is somewhat scarce and because people prefer its taste. In 1985 “beras” Bali cost about Rp 400 per kilogram, with the dwarf varieties selling at around Rp50 to Rp100 per kilogram less. Very little back rice and glutinous rice, including the red variety, is raised, compared to ordinary “jijih”. These sell for even higher prices. But they are always available in the markets because they are needed for offerings of all kinds. Black rice is used to make rice wine, “brem”, which is a very popular drink, both among tourists and Balinese. The latter often mix it with a bit of “arak”, the distilled brandy made from palm beer, “tuak”.

The Indonesian government subsidizes the price of rice in order to keep it affordable. Huge rice storage warehouses have been built on the outskirts of Denpasar. The Balinese call them “dolog”. All government employees are paid partly in rice, or, to be more accurate, in coupons that can be exchange for rice. If an employee marries, his or her monthly ration is increased. If he has a child it is increased again. But, to encourage family planning, this increase does not go on indefinitely. At the moment, allowance for three children is the maximum. Some private companies pay partly with rice also.

The Balinese cook rice in a great variety of ways, but the most common methods are steaming and boiling. The rice is always winnowed first, to remove bits of dirt and husk. This is accomplished by putting the required amount in a round tray and tossing the contents lightly up into the air, letting the breeze blow away impurities. The Balinese are very finicky about dirt or other impurities in their “nasi”. Then the rice is washed in cold water, so as to remove the chalky exterior of the grains.

To make steamed rice, which is called “nasi kuskus”, the cleaned rice is placed in a loosely woven bamboo container that is in the form of a cone, especially made just for steaming rice, the “pengukusan”.

The bamboo steamer with “beras” in it is placed in the upper, funnel-shaped part of the “dangdang”, an hour-glass-shaped metal pot, into which it just fits. A hole is made in the rice with a wooden stick, the “siut”, to allow the steam to penetrate all the grains. The boiling water fills the lower part below the constriction or waist of the pot, and the top of the rice in the steamer to keep the heat and steam from escaping.

Steaming takes place for about half an hour. Since this tends to dry the rice out, it is removed from the steamer to a clay container, the “pane”, or “gembor”, and a little hot water is added. After 15 or 20 minutes the rice, having soaked up the water, is returned to the steamer and steamed for another half hour until done.

Alternatively the housewife, my elect to prepare boiled rice, “nasi jakan.” This is simple and fast, but most Balinese prefer their rice steamed. To boil the rice, cleaned rice is stirred into water boiling in a clay pot , called a “payuk”, or a metal pot, the “panci”. A wooden stirring stick is used to mix up the contents until the water boils again. Boiling is allowed to continue for about half an hour. Inevitably a little of the rice in the bottom burns a bit and forms kind of browned cake, which is a favorite of the children of the family, who take it out and munch on it all day along.

The Balinese cook rice twice a day, in the morning and in the evening. It is never reheated, but it is often kept in a large insulated container until it is ready to eat. They do not mind if it is cold, which it almost inevitably is by the time it is eaten. Rice is never kept over until the next day, because the taste deteriorates rapidly without refrigeration.

Another very common way of preparing rice is by making one of the several varieties of “ketipat”. A “ketipat” is a kind of box woven of coconut leaves, made very loosely, but not so open that the rice grains fall out. “Beras” is put inside, through one of the spaces between the leaves by prying an opening apart. The “ketipat” is then put into the rice steamer, or boiled in the pot. The rice swells to fill the container, and the result is a package of rice that the husband can take to the field for a snack or the kids can take to school, or that can be used as an offering.

Rice cakes, “jaja”, are characteristic of most of Indonesian, but Bali has more varieties than any other area. There are many kind of cakes, each with a different name, and each serving a specific purpose. Many are made for offerings, and the markets are overflowing with them when important religious ceremonies are imminent. But lots are consumed daily for snacks, and they are delicious. They are so numerous and are made in so many different ways that it would be folly to try to attempt a dissertation of “jaja” in this essay.