 For centuries, farmers in the dramatically-stepped wet-rice
terraces of Bali relied on priests of local "water temples" to coordinate
irrigation among hundreds of farming communities. The Balinese
agricultural tradition entailed complex religious, social and technical
processes that optimized water sharing on the Indonesian island, reduced
pest infestations, and successfully yielded rice and other food crops.
While a century of Dutch colonial conquest induced few major changes to
the rice paddy system, it was Asia's "Green Revolution" in the early 1970s
the zealous spread of new agricultural technologies that promised to
radically increase rice production that proved disastrous for Balinese
agriculture. During this time, anthropologist J. Stephen Lansing was
studying the temples of Bali and began to focus on the water temples,
which were either ignored or misunderstood by foreigners. As Dr. Lansing
states in his 1991 book on the subject, Priests and Programmers:
Technology of Power in the Engineered Landscape of Bali (Princeton
University Press; p.11): "If the powers of the water temples were rather
hazy for the Dutch, they were entirely invisible to the planners involved
in promoting the Green Revolution ."
 Ranging from mountain lakes to seacoast, water temples were in
fact the fulcrum of a delicately balanced system of cooperation between
neighboring farmers, steeped in symbolic ritual activities such as food
offerings to the Goddess of Crater Lake and other deities. Due to the
rigorous social coordination orchestrated through the water temples, led
by temple priests, pest levels were minimized and water sharing optimized
in the rice paddies. Water temples achieved different ranks of importance
according to their role in the rice production process: the highest rank
belonged to major water temples which controlled cycles for large sections
of rivers and blocks of rice terraces, encompassing larger congregations
of farmers.
 In the fervor of the Green Revolution, the Indonesian government
persuaded Balinese farmers to adopt new fertilizers, pesticides, and
cultivate hearty "miracle" rice in a $54 million scheme of modernization.
Farmers were pressured to plant rice as frequently as possible, and to
disregard the traditional irrigation schedules of neighboring paddies.
After a brief increase in productivity, crops dwindled drastically, prey
to water shortages and infestation by vermin. Balinese farmers began
pressing the government for a return to irrigation scheduling by the water
temples, but were castigated for their religious conservatism and
resistance to change. In 1983, the National Science Foundation sponsored
Dr. Steve Lansing to examine the role of water temples in Balinese
irrigation management. Dr. Lansing subsequently tried to convey to
development officials that the rituals of the water temples were a
historically successful system of ecological management that should not be
ignored but they persisted with their ill-fated plan.
 Again sponsored by the NSF in 1987, Dr. Lansing collaborated
with ecologist/computer expert James Kremer to study the traditional
Balinese agricultural system using computers to calculate the effects of
various crop management scenarios. Their computer simulation model, using
historical rainfall data, concluded that the traditional water temple
system was far more effective than the government's current policy.
Officials finally acknowledged the high price of their having ignored the
traditional irrigation management system. Thanks to J. Stephen Lansing's
work, development agencies are now encouraging Balinese rice farmers to
return to the system that has served them well for over a thousand years.
As Dr. Lansing puts it, "These ancient traditions have wisdom we can learn
from." Dr. Lansing's research resonates beyond the borders of Bali's rice
paddies. It serves to illustrate the value of an anthropological, holistic
approach to ecological and agronomic problems.
Please read: Lansing on the ecology of Balinese water temples
For more information see:
Priests and Programmers: Technologies of Power in the Engineered
Landscape of Bali, J. Stephen Lansing, Princeton University Press,
1991
The Balinese, J. Stephen Lansing, Harcourt Brace, 1994
This research is supported by the Cultural Anthropology
Program.
All photos Copyright © J. Stephen Lansing
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