Bali's rice terraces are run by water temples, and have been for centuries
About 4.2 million Balinese make up 85 percent of their island's people and stand apart in Indonesia by practising Balinese Hinduism. Their farming depends on the subak, a web of canals and tunnels managed by priests of the water temples, a cooperative system traced back as far as the 11th century.
The Balinese arrived in three waves. Proto-Malay settlers came from Java and Kalimantan in prehistory; more drifted in from Java during the Hindu period; and in the 15th and 16th centuries nobles and farmers fled the fall of the Hindu Majapahit Empire as Java turned to Islam. That last influx blended classical Javanese culture with local traditions. A 2005 genetic study found most Balinese Y-chromosomes likely Austronesian, with smaller Indian and Melanesian shares. The Bali Aga, descended from earlier settlers, largely keep animist ways rather than the holy-water faith.
Why did Hinduism survive here? Partly because Dutch colonial rulers curbed both Muslim and Christian missionary work to preserve existing customs, a policy later called Baliseering, and partly because the Balinese held firmly to their inherited rites. Indian priests are said to have brought Hindu and Buddhist scriptures long ago, which merged with older myths into Agama Tirta.
Wet rice needs enormous amounts of water, and the subak shares it out through obligation rather than markets. Temples sit at the key junctions of the network, steering water from mountain springs down to dry lowlands, and their spiritual authority keeps farmers cooperating. Temples at major sources carry the most prestige, which is why royal families attached themselves to them. Genetic evidence suggests the system spread along family lines as villagers moved into harsher parts of the island.
Art saturates daily life. Temples crowd even poor villages, gamelan orchestras and shadow puppet theatre are everywhere, and the historian José Miguel Covarrubias saw amateur work as a spiritual offering made without concern for fame. Each ceremony has its own music, from temple birthdays to the Ngaben cremation. Inheritance usually passes through sons, but a family of daughters can name one as heir, reversing the marriage roles so her children belong to her line. The airport honours I Gusti Ngurah Rai, who led a final puputan during the independence war.
Source: Balinese people
