SUBAK

Subak

Subak is the name of irrigation system for rice fields in Bali, Indonesia that was created in 9th century. For people of Bali, irrigation isn’t just providing water for the roots, but a complex is built using water. The system is composed of five terraced rice fields as well as water temples. The main focus of this water management system of weirs and canals is the temples.
Religious relationship

Subak is a traditional irrigation system which unites Balinese agrarian society collectively within Bale Banjar community center of the village and temples of Bali.
Priests are authorized for the water managements in water temples. Priests practice Tri Hita Karana Philosophy which is a self-described association between the gods, the earth and humans. Tri Hita Karana unites the human world, the realm of spirit and nature. The Subak system represents this philosophical belief. A cordial relationship between people and environment is promoted by water temple rituals by way of the active involvement of people with customary concepts which emphasise reliance on the life-sustaining powers of the natural world. Rice is considered as the gift of god and the system of subak is a part of temple culture.

System

Components of subak are temples of different importance and size which mark either its way through the shrine on its way down to irrigate subak land or the source of water, villages, weirs and tunnels, paddy fields linked by a system of canals, terraced paddy field and the forests which safeguard the water supply. The countryside has been shaped together during the past thousand years by Subak, the cooperative canal system that controls the water, rice and the water needed to grow rice. Water from canals and springs flows through the temples into the paddy field. Bali has roughly 1,200 water collectives. Between 50 and 400 farmers bring about the water supply from a single source of water. The property consists of 5 sites which demonstrate the unified cultural, religious and natural parts of the old subak system. The sites are most architecturally famous and the biggest regional water temple, the Royal Water temple of Pura Taman Ayun, the Subak Landscape of Catur Angga Batukaru with balconies cited in a 10th century inscription, the Subak Landscape of the Pakerisan Watershed and the Supreme Water Temple of Pura Ulun Danu Batur whose crater lake is considered as the final source of every river and spring. These sites are motivated by many different old holy traditions, including Austronesian cosmology, Vajrayana Buddhism and Samkhyā and Saivasiddhanta Hinduism.