Jatiluwih Rice Terraces

Jatiluwih is a UNESCO World Heritage rice-terrace landscape on the southern slopes of Mount Batukaru in central Bali's Tabanan Regency — more than 600 hectares of contour terraces stepping up the volcano in a cooperative irrigation system that has run continuously for over a thousand years. From a helicopter the full scale of the *subak* finally fits in a single frame.

The Jatiluwih terraces are the most visible part of Bali's **subak** — a cooperative irrigation network that UNESCO inscribed as a Cultural Landscape in 2012. The subak is older than any state on Bali; written references date to the 11th century but the system is almost certainly older. Water is captured at springs high on Mount Batukaru, channelled through hand-cut tunnels and bamboo aqueducts, and divided fairly between every farmer in the basin by an elected *kelihan subak*. Disputes are settled at water temples — the *Pura Bedugul* at the head of every irrigated valley — using rules drawn from the Hindu cosmological text *Tri Hita Karana*, which prescribes balanced relationships between people, land, and the gods.

The terraces themselves are carved into the steep volcanic flanks of **Mount Batukaru** — at 2,276 metres, Bali's second-highest peak and the spiritual counterweight to mount-agung in the west. The fields are still actively farmed; the traditional *Cicih Bali* and *Mansur* red rice varieties are grown alongside more modern strains, and the harvest cycle runs two crops a year.

Unlike the smaller, more photographed Tegallalang terraces near ubud, Jatiluwih is at landscape scale — a continuous worked surface stretching as far as the volcanic geography allows.

The helicopter approach to Jatiluwih is the only way to see what the UNESCO inscription actually protects. The viewpoint cafés on the rim road show one slope at a time; the helicopter shows the whole basin.