Abstract
Sembalun Bumbung, a mountain village in Lombok, still maintains a traditional mode of rice cultivation together with its related rituals. Land is prepared for cultivation by using a herd of cattle to trample the ground repeatedly; neither plow nor hoe is used. An eight-month variety of rice with large, red grains is transplanted into the prepared plots. The belief in “mother rice” is still very strong, and a series of rituals is observed to encourage this goddess at different occasions from sowing to storing of the harvest. Traces of a Melanesian way of thinking are also found, in that some people say that they should be careful at the time of harvest because their ancestors may become envious of their harvest and do some mischief.
