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Traditional rice barns preserved in Bima
House of rice: A woman dries rice in front of traditional rice barns called uma lengge in Maria subdistrict, Wawo district, Bima regency, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB)
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span class="inline inline-center">House of rice: A woman dries rice in front of traditional rice barns called uma lengge in Maria subdistrict, Wawo district, Bima regency, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB). Residents have preserved the traditional rice barns, but also use modern ones. JP/Panca Nugraha
Despite the rapid development of technology across the globe, residents of Maria subdistrict, Wawo district, Bima regency, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), continue to use traditional rice barns.
Locally called lengge or uma lengge, the rice barns are used to store harvests and have become an important tradition passed down from generation to generation.
'We have been using lengge to store rice for generations. It helps us to sustain economic [levels of] consumption,' Suryati, 38, of Maria told The Jakarta Post recently as she dried rice grain taken from her family barn. Rice in the area is harvested just once a year.
She said her family could store up to 100 sacks of rice grain in their barn during the harvest season and that every week, she kept 30 kilograms for daily needs and either stored or sold what was left over.
Her rice barn is one of 103 spread among 860 families residing in Maria, a community of some 3,000 people. The subdistrict is 35 kilometers from Rabba, the Bima regency capital.
The rice barns are located in a complex that has been around since the 1890s. The complex itself was declared an historic site in 1995 and is located just 2 km from the subdistrict administration office. The barns, however, are held in a separate location from the residents' homes.
The rice barns are neatly arranged in rows and sit on wooden stilts, each at a height of seven meters and separated by one and a half meters.
Each barn is four by four meters square and the conical roofs are made from reeds.
The complex's gatekeeper, Jon Karim, 54, said that in the past, rice barns were a part of the family home. However, fires sometimes burned down the houses and left the people with nothing. To avoid a recurrence of the tragedy, residents decided to build the rice barns in a separate location.
'If the house catches fire we will still have food to eat. If the barn catches fire, we will still have a place to live, along with everything in it,' Jon said.
When the harvest time arrived, he added, many tourists came to the subdistrict to watch the hanta fare ritual, which is when the rice harvest is placed in the barns. The ritual usually includes traditional performances.
Apart from lengge, locals also maintain the tradition of harvesting rice using a traditional cutting technique, known as ani-ani, whereby rice grains are cut one-by-one along the stalk so they can be hung inside the lengge in bundles.
When a family hosts a party, several bundles of rice grains will be taken down and pounded into rice. The ritual has become a festive event in the village, with all residents participating. Women gather and dance, which helps to enhance the determination of the rice-pounders.
Global changes, however, have not completely missed Maria; a majority of the lengge have been transformed into modern rice barns called jompa.
From some 103 rice barns in the complex, just 21 retain the original lengge structure.
