Bali’s subak: water communities and cultural-landscape protection

On 29 June 2012, the World Heritage Committee considered Bali’s cultural landscape in Saint Petersburg and inscribed it on the World Heritage List. Recognition as a cultural landscape emphasized connections between natural environments, rice cultivation, water management and religious life across five component sites.

The components include the water temple beside Lake Batur, the Pakerisan watershed, terraces around Batukaru and the Royal Water Temple of Taman Ayun. The heritage is not confined to disused buildings: farmers still grow rice, water still enters fields through channels, and temples and farming communities continue to participate in local life.

References: [1] [2] [3]

Bali’s volcanic terrain produces fields at different elevations. Rivers and springs feed canals, tunnels and weirs supplying flat paddies and mountain terraces. Each field’s water belongs to a wider watershed, linking source-protecting forests, conveyance structures and distribution among fields.

Subak is a social institution for cooperative irrigation management. Water temples connect different collectives and organize cooperation around shared sources. Irrigation requires engineering and continuing arrangements of farmers’ rights and responsibilities: water use in one field affects others.

References: [1]

Many subaks maintain rules known as awig-awig, detailing members’ rights and responsibilities. Water allocation, organizational management and protection of cultural places form part of local institutions. Maintaining channels and fields is therefore connected with observing rules, discussing affairs and fulfilling shared obligations.

Water-temple rituals place this work within Balinese understandings of relationships between the spiritual realm, people and nature. Members contribute money, materials and volunteer labor to temple maintenance. Practical water arrangements and religious activities continue among the same communities within the same landscape.

References: [1]

At inscription, the Committee considered pressures from agricultural change, tourism and surrounding development. Preserving terrace shapes alone is insufficient: water sources and traditional management must remain operational, and farmers need returns from the land that sustain their livelihoods.

Bali’s management arrangements involve subak communities in heritage governance alongside local government, different agencies and conservation specialists. The 2012 milestone concerns a continuing system: crops must be grown, water allocated, and rules and maintenance supported by people’s work.

References: [1]