Perfect order. Recognizing complexity in Bali

Dr. J. Stephen Lansing, professor of anthropology at the University of Arizona, explains that along a typical Balinese river, small groups of farmers meet regularly at “water temples” to manage their irrigation systems. They have done so for more than a millennium, creating and maintaining a cultural landscape of remarkable productivity and resilience, which UNESCO has declared a world heritage site, the result of the interaction between humans, spirits and nature. Over the centuries, networks of “water temples” have expanded to manage the ecology of rice terraces on the scale of entire watersheds. While each group focuses on its own problems, it is surprising that a global solution has emerged that optimizes irrigation flows for everyone. Did someone design the networks of “water temples” in Bali? Or could the joint solution have emerged from a process of self-organization? The arrival of modern Western agriculture threatens the productivity, resilience and beauty of this admirable system and poses new challenges for its conservation.