Wetlands for Rice
"Pang ulee but ibadat
Pang ulee harkat meugo."
It's a maxim of Acehnese that means:
His Majesty of the whole work is worship
His Majesty of all businesses is cultivating rice
When I took these pictures from above a high hill in mainland of the bay Samawi (now, Lhokseumawe) in northern Aceh, then that arise in my mind are some of the questions: where did this tradition of cultivate rice (or scientific name: Oryza sativa) come? Who was the first one has come to this island, or rather, to this place, and using wetlands here to cultivate rice?
It is the questions that comes in my mind at the time, but it's been a long time, I do not got time and financial ability to research about that. I let the matter remain vague in my mind, and without any answer.
However, some things may be known of paddy or rice, that of the origins of rice cultivation has indeed been buried in the depths of time. No one knows, who and how the rice was first cultivated. But, obviously, the domestic of paddy or rice to be one of the causes of the development of human civilization.
Today, rice is a provider of carbohydrate that is ranked third of all cereal after maize and wheat, and spread throughout the world. According to some scholars, a kind of paddy are descendants of wild grass that is cultivated in the foothills of the Eastern Himalayas, and around the river Irrawaddy and Mekong.
Other scholars said that the rice originated in southern India and then spread to the north of the country. From India to China to the Philippines, and around 1000 BC spread to various islands in Southeast Asia, including Sumatra.
Scientists said that the rice in Sumatra, at first, grows on dry land in the highlands.
It's could be!
The Acehnese know of rice grown in the highlands by the term: Pade tajoek, referring to the way of planting that is no different from planting other cereals such as corn and soybeans.
In fact, in Aceh, there were very delicious rice coming from the highlands, known as the rice Tangse. Tangse is an area in the highlands, under the administration of the country Pidie, famous specialty produce rice and various cereals.
A wetland at one part in Lhokseumawe, Aceh.
One of the paddy fields in Lhokseumawe, Aceh.
Area of rice cultivation from where I took the picture.
Here, where I was standing.
