Green Rice Paddies, Tropical Forest, Bali, Indonesia

A sustainable legacy

This lush, quilted landscape of rice fields is a visual testament to the millennium-old subak irrigation system, which harmonizes farming with ecology and spiritual life. Since the 9th century, Bali's freshwater supply has been managed by local co-ops each centered around Hindu water temples. From lofty sources like Lake Batur—considered Bali's main freshwater source, located about 20 miles north of this farm in Ubud—water spills downhill through networks of weirs and waterways to soak the rice terraces from the highest to the lowest. Flow is directed on a schedule carefully planned by the co-ops, so rice fields may spend a given season either fertile, like the prosperous paddy to our right, or fallow, like the unsown area to our left.