Roy W. Hamilton et al.

The term Asia is a problematic and highly artificial construct, because hardly anything - not language, religion, politics, or even geography - unites this huge area. Within the context of this study, however - which focuses on parts of South, Southeast, and East Asia (home to the vast majority of
the population) - there exists a unifying factor of paramount significance: rice. Not only is rice the staple food in these regions, it is the focal point of a pervasive set of interrelated beliefs and practices. For those who consume it, this foodstuff is considered divinely given and is felt to sustain them in a special way, one that may be understood as constitutional and even spiritual. This volume explores beliefs and practices relating to rice as they are made manifest in the unique arts and material cultures of the various peoples considered.

Incorporating essays by twenty-seven authorities representing a wide variety of cultures and writing from diverse perspectives, the book is astounding in
its polyphony. The thirty-five lavishly illustrated essays describe rice-related rituals and beliefs in parts of Thailand, Nepal, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Japan, China, and Korea. Throughout, the juxtaposition of magnificent photographs of works of art - paintings, prints,
ceramics, textiles, lacquerware, and sculpture - with objects of a more humble nature - agriculturalimplements,rice-straw ornaments, cooking utensils, baskets, puppets, votive plaques, and more - serves to indicate the striking pervasiveness of rice in all aspects and all walks of life. Wedding ceremonies, parades, festivals, celebrations of birth, rites held to honor the rice goddess, and those performed to ensure success at every step in the rice-growing cycle are vividly described and illustrated with
striking field photographs. The whole gives the reader the rare opportunity to compare similarities and differences in how a rich array of Asian cultures views the food that nourishes them.

Roy W. Hamilton is curator of Asian and Pacific collections at the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History. His previous publications include From the Rainbow's Varied Hue: Textiles of the Southern Philippines and Gift of the Cotton Maiden: Textiles of Flores and the Solor Islands.

Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
Notes to the Reader
Chapter 1. Introduction - Roy W. Hamilton

Part 1: Labor, Ritual, and the Cycle of Time
Chapter 2. Labor, Ritual, and the Cyle of TIme - Roy W. Hamilton
- BOX: The Balinese Tika - Garrett Kim
Chapter 3. Rice Festivals in Northeast Thailand - Suriya Smutkupt and Pattana Kitiarsa
Chapter 4. Body Art and Cyclic Time: Rice Dancing among the Tharu of Nepal - Gisele Krauskopff
Chapter 5. Rice Culture in Manipur, India - Mutua Bahadur
Chapter 6. The Purification of Rice Fields in Java with an Apotropaic Plank - Stephen C. Headley
Chapter 7. Rice Harvest Rituals in Two Highland Tai Communities in Vietnam - Vi Van An and Eric Crystal

Part 2: The Granary: A Home for the Rice Spirits
Chapter 8. The Granary: A Home for the Rice Spirits - Roy W. Hamilton
Chapter 9. The Granary of the Tharu of Nepal - Kurt W. Meyer and Pamela Deuel

Part 3: Rice Festivals: Community and Celebration
Chapter 10. Rice Festivals: Community and Celebration - Roy W. Hamilton
Chapter 11. The Pahiyas Festival of Lucban, Philippines - Roy W. Hamilton
Chapter 12. The Gods Walk on Rice in Selat, Bali - David J. Stuart-Fox
Chapter 13. Offering the New Rice to the Buddha in Mae Chaem, Northern Thailand - Roy W. Hamilton and Thitipol Kanteewong
Chapter 14. The Ghost Festival of Dan Sai, Loei Province, Thailand - Ruth Gerson
Chapter 15. The Ma'Bua' Pare Ceremony of the Sa'dan Toraja of Sulawesi, Indonesia - Eric Crystal
Chapter 16. Tro Tram Festival and the Veneration of Ngo Thi Thanh in a Vietnamese Village - Vu Hong Thudt and Roy W. Hamilton
Chapter 17. Of Mites and Men: The Shorei Festival at Mount Haguro, Japan - Toshiyuki Sano and Roy W. Hamilton

Part 4: The Goddess of Rice
Chapter 18. The Goddess of Rice - Roy W. Hamilton
BOX: Annapurna - Sohini Ray
Chapter 19. Ponniyamman, a Tamil Rice Goddess from South India - Nanditha Krishna
Chapter 20. Sri and Sedana at Pura Besakih, Bali - Daivd J. Stuart-Fox

Part 5: Sacred Food
Chapter 21. Sacred Food - Roy W. Hamilton
Chapter 22. Lakshmi of the House: Rituals, Realities, and Representations of Womanhood in Modern Bengal - Sohini Ray
Chapter 23. The Art of Rice in Balinese Offerings - Francine Brinkgreve
BOX: Sarad - Garrett Kam
Chapter 24. Sake in Japanese Art and Culture - Mariko Fujita
PHOTO-ESSAY: The Art of Sake - Roy W. Hamilton

Part 6: Straw Matters
Chapter 25. Straw Matters - Roy W. Hamilton

Part 7: Rice, Self, and State
Chapter 26. Rice, Self, and State - Roy W. Hamilton
Chapter 27. Rice in the Human Life Cycle: Traditions from Tamil Nadu, India - Nanditha Krishna
Chapter 28. Wrapping the Body with Images of Rice: Kimono Patterns from the Edo Period - Toshiyuki Sano
Chapter 29. Images of Rice in Imperial Chinese Culture - Francesca Bray

Part 8: The Future of Rice
Chapter 30. The Future of Rice - Roy W. Hamilton
Chapter 31. Let's Hope the Bile Is Good - Aurora Ammayao with Gene Hettel
Chapter 32. Mbok Sri Dethroned: Changing Rice Rituals in Rural East Java - Rens Heringa
Chapter 33. The Descent of Good Fortune and Material Wealth: A Contemporary Javanese Shadow Puppet Play - Roy W. Hamilton with Kik Soleh Adi Pramono
Chapter 34. Social and Agricultural Change in Korea's Rice Farming Communities - Kwang-Kyu Lee
Chapter 35. Rice in South Korean Life: The Transformation of Agricultural Icons - Michael Reinschmidt

Notes to the Text
References Cited
Contributors
Index

Pub Date: 2004 ISBN: PAPER:    0-930741-98-6    9780930741983 Price: Paper: $60.00 Bibliographic information: 552 pp., 508 illus., 450 in color, map, bibliog., index, 8.5" x 11" Distributed for: Fowler Museum at UCLA