Rice Trails : A Journey Through the Ricefields of Asia & Australia, words by Tony Wheeler, photographs by Richard L’Anson
Rice is the world’s most important staple food (in calories consumed, it’s number one) and it is also one of the most attractive. Whether it be rice terraces cascading down a hillside in Indonesia or laser-leveled “bays” of rice sweeping across pancake-flat Australia, it’s always stunning.
Our island of Bali is made beautiful by its main economic activity – rice-growing – every step of its multitudinous stairways of rice a little masterpiece of artistic perfection, rendering the island one vast earth sculpture.
Scientifically, rice was a keystone in the 1960’s “Green Revolution” which began in the Philippines. As one of the major rice-producing regions of Indonesia, Bali was one of the first targets of the new rice-growing technologies. This great leap forward to modernize agriculture dramatically increased rice production, banishing the centuries old specter of mass famine in Asia.
The new strains of rice also banished forever one of the most enchanting sights of “old” Bali – women walking down the island’s roads and lanes carrying stacks of unwinnowed rice on their heads. The new varieties of rice, which matured in only 125 days and produced as much as 5800 pounds of grain per are, would shatter and fall from the impact of the women’s steps. Thus the chaff had to separated at harvest.
Both the author and photographer were given huge amounts of help every step of the way in the research of Rice Trails. Tony Wheeler, who wrote the well-informed text, may have gotten his first taste of rice in Pakistan – home of famed Basmati rice - where he spent the first five years of his life.But chances are that he more likely acquired the taste during his 30 years traveling Asia as founder of the Lonely Planet guidebook publishing company.
Not just Indonesia is covered in this affectionate photo tribute, but also many other regions where rice is also a way of life - Bangladesh, Burma, India, Japan, Nepal, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
So fundamental are all aspects of the rice culture to the peoples of Asia that the UN’s Food & Agriculture Organization has made 2004 “The International Year of Rice.”
Rice Trails is generously illustrated with photographs of implements, technology and farmers from traditional rice cultures as well as the modern industrial, harvesting and processing machinery and workers of giant agricultural corporations.
Every phase of the grain’s journey from field to plate - planting, growing, harvesting, processing, trading, consuming or simply celebrating - has a fascinating story. Rice Trails narrates and illustrates this journey like no other existing publication in English.
Rice Trails: A Journey Through the Ricefields of Asia & Australia by Tony Wheeler, photographs by Richard l’Anson, ISBN 1-74104-309-3, 9-3/4 X 12 inch format, 160 pages, full color photographs.
Available for Rp435,000 at Periplus Bookshops in the Bali Galleria and in the Matahari in Kuta, Warung Made in Seminyak, Ngurah Rai Airport (bothinternational and domestic terminals), in Gramedia Bookstores, and in Ary’s and Ganesha bookshops of Ubud.
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