Jatiluwih Rice Terraces

Interesting facts

When UNESCO assessed the nomination in 2008, the original Jatiluwih site was enlarged into the Catur Angga Batukaru landscape, taking in two lakes and mountain forests.

That landscape now groups 17 major subak associations and 12 customary villages across the districts of Tabanan and Buleleng.

Jatiluwih's farmers still grow local red rice, which takes about five months to ripen, far longer than the 80 to 90 days of modern varieties.

Under the subak, neighbouring farmers plant in step, so large areas lie fallow at the same time and pests lose their habitat.

In the 1970s Green Revolution rice and pesticides disrupted this scheduling, causing pest outbreaks; Indonesia restored subak control over planting in 1988.

The subak is first recorded in writing around the eleventh century, under the name kasuwakara, which later became suwak and then subak.

Every subak water temple is considered linked to Pura Ulun Danu Batur, on the crater lake of Mount Batur, seen as the source of all Bali's springs.

A single water source in the subak system can be shared by anywhere from 50 to 400 farmers.

Jatiluwih is made up of two customary villages, Jatiluwih and Gunung Sari, which together include seven traditional hamlets, or banjar.

In the early 1990s Jatiluwih was one of three Balinese villages chosen for a pilot programme of community-run village tourism.

Why it is worth it

Jatiluwih is where Bali's rice terraces are at their most expansive. Instead of a single photogenic valley, the fields here spread across the lower slopes of Mount Batukaru, the island's second-highest volcano, in waves of curving terraces covering more than 600 hectares, broken by palms, footpaths and the forest of the mountain above. At around 700 metres above sea level the air is cooler and often misty, and on a clear morning the terraces step down towards the south with the volcano rising behind them.

The terraces exist because of the subak, the cooperative system of water management that has distributed irrigation across Bali for roughly a thousand years. Water from the mountain is channelled through canals and shared field by field, with decisions about planting and flooding taken collectively by farmers' associations and tied to the island's water temples. The system is the practical expression of Tri Hita Karana, the Balinese principle of harmony between people, nature and the divine. In 2012 Jatiluwih became part of the UNESCO World Heritage property Cultural Landscape of Bali Province: the Subak System as a Manifestation of the Tri Hita Karana Philosophy.

The name is usually explained as a joining of local words for "charm" and "good"; another explanation links it to Jatayu, a mythical bird. The cycle of planting means the landscape is never the same twice: flooded mirrors after planting, intense green as the rice grows, gold before harvest, and bare earth between seasons. The young rice of the early months of the year and the harvest season around the middle of the year are both striking.

Paths lead out across the terraces from the village, and walking them is the best way to understand the scale — and the care — involved. Come early in the day, when the light is soft and before cloud gathers on Batukaru.

Getting there

Jatiluwih lies in Tabanan Regency in the central highlands, about 26 km north of the town of Tabanan. The nearest airport is Denpasar's I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport (DPS), about 42 km away in a straight line; the drive takes longer on the winding mountain roads. The terraces are reached by road via Tabanan.

Jatiluwih Rice Terraces

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

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