Rice in Southeast Asian myth and ritual [1 ed.] 9780080305561, 0080305563

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CONTRIBUTIONS TO SOUTHEAST ASIAN ETHNOGRAPHY

Editor Anthony R. Walker, D.Phil. (Oxon) The Ohio State University Assistant Editor Tan Chee-Beng, Ph.D. (Cornell) The University of Malaya Editorial and Administrative Address Contributions to Southeast Asian Ethnography The Ohio State University Department of Anthropology MOfBOrial Library 217B Lord Hall University of Wisconsin - MadiOB 124 West m Avenue 728 State Street Columbus, OH 43210-1364 fVladiSOlT Wf 5370^ ’104 ’ Contributions to Southeast Asian Ethnography is an occasional publication devoted exclusively to the study of the peoples of Southeast Asia, their societies and their cultures. Contributions will appear from time to time as suitable manuscripts and financial resources permit.

The orientation of Contributions is essentially ethnographic and the majority of articles represent first-hand field data reported by professional anthropolo­ gists and others with long personal experience of the region. The responsibility for all facts and opinions presented in the articles rests with the authors themselves. Those who wish to contribute to future numbers of Contributions should note the infonnation presented on the inside back cover of this issue. Contributions is sold on an issue-by-issue basis. The cost of this number exclusive of postage (by surface mail) is U. S. $12.00

Published by Anthony R. Walker, Columbus, Ohio, and printed by Double-Six Press Pte L^., Singapore. © 1994, The Editors, Contributions to Southeast Asian Ethnography ISSN 0217-2992. Cover: Detail from a modern (1975) painting in traditional style from the village of I^^masan in southeastern Bali. The painting illustrates part of the Malat corpus,* stories concerning the exploits of Panji, Prince of Koripan. (Photo: Pauline H. Walker.)

EQNTRIBUTIQNS TO

SOUTHEAST ASIAN ETHNOGRAPHY

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CONTRIBUTIONS TO SOUTHEAST ASIAN ETHNOGRAPHY Number 10, January 1994

RICE IN SOUTHEAST ASIAN MYTH AND RITUAL

Memorial Library University of Wisconsin - Madison 728 State Street Edited by Madison, Wl 53706-149^nthony R. Walker Editor’s Introduction

Articles

Rice Legends in Mainland Southeast Asia: History and Ethnography in the Study of Myths of Origin B.J. Terwiel

The Traditional Rice Culture of the Lahu (Including Kucong) of Southwest China Liu Huihao

Ca^ Suh Aw- Ca'' Ve: Eating the New Rice among the Lahu Nyi (Red Lahu) in North Thailand Anthony R. Walker

Traditional Rituals of the Rice Cultivating Cycle among Selected Ethnic Minority Peoples of Yunnan Province, Southwest China Yang Yuxiang

The One-Sided One: Iban Rice Myths, Agricultural Ritual and Notions of Ancestry Clifford Sather

Cuddling the Rice: Myth and Ritual in the Agricultural Year of the Rembong of Northern Manggarai, Indonesia Maribeth Erb

The Rice Scattering Ritual in Austronesia: Instances from the Nage of Central Flores (Eastern Indonesia) Gregory Forth

G-N

435 A75 C66

EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION

V. /C> This number of Contributions to Southeast Asian Ethnography has been long in the making and longer still in germination. Eight years ago, when introducing the fourth number of Contributions (on resource utilization), I expressed the hope of bringing together a collection of papers on Southeast Asian rice rituals. Here is that wish brought to fruition, with the closely related topic of rice mythology added to the original conception. The first papers for this volume began to arrive on my desk some three years ago, but the last appeared only this May (1993)! A special note of apology is certainly due to Professors Terwiel and Forth and to Drs. Sather and Erb for making them wait so long to see their work in print. This is the price to pay for having each number of Contributions be a collection of closely inter­ related papers, rather than the assortment on disparate topics that is the usual fare of the periodical literature. The editors of Contributions remain commit­ ted to the journal’s “thematic” and, within the Southeast Asian cultural region, widely comparative approach. We ask our contributors and readers, therefore, to be tolerant of this journal’s irregular publication schedule. The present volume nicely demonstrates the editorial ideal: an assemblage of closely-related papers providing ethnographic materials from all over the region, being neither country-specific nor topically diffuse. Each paper focuses on the mythological and/or ritual importance of rice, and the ethnographic data are garnered from Tai (including Lao, Siamese, Lue, Khuen, Shan, Tai Dam and Chuan'g), Akha, Kachin (Jingpo), Ao Naga, Lahu, Lisu, Hmong, Khmer, Wa, Blang, De-ang, Vietnamese, Muong, Iban, Ngaju, Rembong, Nage, Ngadha, Riung, Sumbanese, Javanese, Batak and Peninsular Malay peoples. Countrywise they cover the Indian state of Nagaland, Burma, China’s Yunnan province, Laos, Thailand;-Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and Indonesia. We begin with Barend Terwiel’s meticulous scholarship, as he demonstrates the wide occurrence of strikingly similar motifs in two genres of rice myth­ ology across the Southeast Asian mainland, traversing major ethno-linguistic divides as well*(see his Maps 1 & 2). Moreover, Terwiel’s demonstration of the intermingling of local oral and Buddhist literary traditions nicely exempli­ fies the genius of Southeast Asian civilizations: their ability to manipulate and fuse indigenous and imported ideas into new, cohesive wholes. In connection with Terwiel’s first mythological theme, the association of a widow with the shrinking of rice grains from the size of coconuts to their present small proportions (a motif he discovers all over the Tai-speaking world and among neighbouring Tibeto-Burman-speakers), I cannot resist reporting here the words of one of my Lahu friends from the hills of North Thailand that I recorded in tlie mid-1960s, but had quite forgotten about until I read Terwiel’s paper. A~ sho-e- hta'' aw.. vi~ awv nyi nyr g'a'' heh pui~ A long time ago relatives two people forest hk’awlo cag’pi" k'aive te''yan'' mL£aw..ki/L te''ka^ inside visiting went one time fiat place one place

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Anthony R. Walker

awv hk’aw lo, ca^ Shi- te'' shl- ve, la^ tsuh'' pui huihui inside padi one seed. fist just like nawk ve yo// Chi hta. pa taw, yu. growing yes! Therefore, [they] took [it] ko-e^ leh te ca". Te'' nyi hta'', went home to prepare and eat [it]. One day neh chaw'' ma te''g’a'' yu- veu la leh widow one person took [it] along [with her] and cheh ma~ k’o.keu /eh ha'' ha'' teleh mortar into put and quickly pounded [it] and aieu hpeh^ she^ ve yov./ Chi pa taw, dust (=small pieces] became yes! For this reason, ya^nyi ca^ shL ca^ hk'a meu today unhusked rice husked rice dust [=small pieces] leh hpeh^ she>^ ve y