BALI, INDONESIA, June 2, 2012 (Jakarta Post): Since early Friday morning, many farmers at Jatiluwih village, Tabanan, about 12.5 miles from Denpasar, began marching to their rice fields bringing offerings, as part of the pre-harvest thanksgiving ceremony, locally known as Mesaba.
The main rituals are held in the afternoon at the subak temple in Bedugul. All of the subak members flocked to the temple and performed the rituals led by three pemangku (priests), who prayed and sanctified
all the offerings.
“We believe that if we continue to perform the ceremony, it will improve our next harvests,” said head of Subak Gunung Sari, Nyoman Susila, citing that Balinese farmers had always performed the ceremony for hundreds of years.
In the rituals, the farmers cut some of their rice paddy to cook tipat (boiled rice wrapped in a woven palm leaf pouch). The tipat are then used for the rituals on the day of harvesting. Guru Dolog, a prominent figure in the village, said that the ceremony was only one part of many other rituals that had to be done by the subak farmers. “There are many others rituals in order to give thanks for all God’s blessings.”