The scene of paddy.The valley among the hills.
Rice is most popular cereal in the world in
terms of human consumption. When consume it in every single meal : breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner,
supper, even dessert, it remains me of Shizou Tsuji, an author of the classic
Japanese cooking said,” Rice is a
beautiful when it grows ,precision rows of sparkling green stalk shooting up to
reach the hot summer sun. It is beautiful when harvested, autumn gold sheaves piled on diked, patchwork paddies. It
is a beautiful when , once threshed, it enters granary bins like a ( flood ) of
tiny seed-pearls. It is beautiful when cooked by a practiced hand ,pure white
and sweetly fragrant”. What Shizou Tsuji said is representation of what he
felling when rice is being part of agriculture life in Asia. Not only the taste
of rice remains me of the precious food for Indonesians people, but also the
art of rice make it more precious than a diamond.
Spending summer time in a village is the
great experience. Back to the nature life, is a moment that can I capture in that village.
It is small provincial town of NTT, Indonesia. Located two hours from Ende region, Detusoko is home to
around 15,000 people , the majority of whom are involved in production of rice.
While some farm rice on larger scale, many just convert their field into a rice
paddy for sustenance. There are more than 1,000 varieties grown across the
world, but the most cultivated is the family of Oryza Sativa L. I’m very curious about this village affair love the
rice.
To Understand why rice is so important for
Detusoko peoples, I need look out the culture of people. According to belief of people, The
existence of paddy was sacrifice by “ Ine Pare “ who give her blood and bones to the people. So they love
paddy as their own life. Ine Pare had given a life for them, as the present
from God. Every single field is consist of one stone that use as the symbols of
the sacrifice of Ine Pare”.
Growing rice is one of the most
labour-intensive forms agriculture. It’s
need 90 to 120 days to harvest the crop
from seedling to maturity. It has instruction
when planting the rice. It’s simple, don’t walk on any of seedlings, take a couple of seedling from
your bundle and plant them so they are standing upright in the muddy soil and
the last leave a space between each seedling, roughly the size of a palm print.
It’s seems like an easy job, but it need
energy. I have respect for farmer cultivating rice. My body is worse for make this job, while some of them
still has powerful energy. Starting in
one corner , we move horizontally and zigzag like a snake until the job is
done. One hectare of land can produce
about 40 kg of rice. Two corps
are cultivated each year , with the main crop grown in the rainy season in order
to increase yields. The dry season is used to grow vegetables.
Although, the breaking work and poor pay,
the people working with the fields are some of the happiest. As I look out
across the paddies and see the farmers work with their heart, I think life is
perfect. And it all comes down to the art of rice.
