IN THE face of pressure to adopt agricultural technology to improve the efficiency of rice production, many Lombok farmers adhere to traditional practices and rituals which exemplify the spirit of togetherness.
Often rejecting time-efficient harvesting machines and other modern equipment, the farmers rigidly maintain their system of ngerampek which draws communities together to participate in all aspects of the rice growing process.
Many Lombok communities produce two rice crops a year and others, in the high-rainfall Mount Rinjani foothills, can produce three of four crops. Often one crop is being planted while a nearby padi is ready for harvest.
Across the island, though, from planting until harvest, rice farmers manage the process in a spirit of togetherness in which traditions determine work groups and their tasks.
In the south, ngayah is a local term which defines how traditional farmers produce their rice in partnership. A ngayah group of five to 10 men will spend about half a day taking rice seedlings from one padi and tying them into bundles of a particular size for spreading in another padi that has been ploughed for planting.
“At our place there is a ngayah group and traditional wages are paid, for example, to the person who binds the rice seedlings before they are planted,” said farmer Marham, 50, from Tempos village in West Lombok’s Gerung district.
Marham is a member of his community’s Ngayah group which is named Pade Angen.
Once the bundles of rice seedlings have been distributed, at certain distances apart, the Ngayah group’s work is done. The field is ready for planting which is the task of a group of around 10 women named ngelowong.
In the planting season, the ngelowong leader will usually call the group to work both in the morning and afternoon. The women form a line in the padi and start to plant neatly. It is skilled and intensive work that will end for the day only as the sun is setting.
At harvest time, the groups of men and women will work together. The men are responsible for separating the rice grains from the stalks by a method named ngerampek in which bundles of rice stalks are banged against a traditional wooden structure to release the grains.
One the rice stalks are discarded, the women are tasked with gathering those grains that have not been released through ngerampek. Through this system named mepes, the women usually gather up to one-and-a-half baskets of grains.
“Although there are modern machines for harvesting, this traditional system still survives as it allows the farmers of Lombok to practice togetherness,” said farmer Badrain of Narmada in West Lombok.
The spirit of togetherness is also expressed when Lombok farmers perform rituals of thanksgiving to God for fertile soil and abundant crops.
Lombok’s indigenous Sasak people, who are Muslim, traditionally express gratitude to God for agricultural success as well as other achievements in life.
In Panarukan village in West Lombok, Sasak people offer thanks to God by performing the roah gumi ritual after a harvest, when the community will eat and pray together, and by carrying offerings to all corners of their rice fields.
Lombok’s Hindu community will conduct the traditional Ngalapin ceremony as a means of reflection and of offering thanks to the Laksmi, the goddess of prosperity, for abundant yields. The Hindus also perform the ceremony to encourage better crops in the future.
The ngalapin ceremony is led by a priest, usually at the harvest site, and is accompanied by drumming on bamboo and other traditional instruments.
Geographical proximity and historical links between Lombok and neighbouring Bali, where most people are Hindu, have over time caused the development of many cultural similarities between the people of the two islands.
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