Here in North America, we're so busy throwing rice away at weddings (!!), we fail to realize the sacredness of this grain in Asia. Nearly seven in 10 people in the world rely on it for sustenance and, they worship it in many ways.
By the way, the Burmese eat about 195 kilograms of rice a year while those in North America average a paltry eight kilos.
My previous rice articles have focused on basic information and on the Asian comfort food of congee. This article will highlight cultural notions and actions.
Rice spirits in Asia are almost always female and regarded as a kind of mother figure (thus, the connection to fertility and tossing it at the bride).
Just how ingrained is rice in Asian cultures?
Consider that in China, people greet the new year with "May your rice never burn!" while in many places, including Bangladesh and Thailand, the routine greeting is "Have you eaten your rice today?" And did you know that Toyota means "bountiful rice field" and Honda means "main rice field"?
RICE FOLKLORE AND BELIEFS
In Thailand, the annual Royal Plowing Ceremony has taken place in front of the Grand Palace in Bangkok for seven centuries. It's usually held around May, to launch the rice-growing season and is meant to ensure a good bounty.
During the rite, the "Lord of the Festival" selects from one of three different-lengths of cloth. Depending on the length, rainfall will be plenty, average or scarce. The Lord then wears that cloth and proceeds to a ploughing area where he pays respect to the King by till in front of him using a pair of bulls and a plough while also scattering rice seeds.
After the ceremony, audience members rush onto the field to pick up the sacred grains to take home and mix with their seeds for planting.
Across the sea to Bali, rice seeds are often dropped along the borders of fields to keep evil spirits and animals away. They venerate Dewi Sri, rice goddess of life and fertility. The Balinese will often moisten their chests, foreheads and temples with holy water and stick kernels of uncooked rice to their skin as a way of absorbing Dewi Sri's life force.
In some rural villages in Cambodia, you'll come across food offerings in the corners of rice paddies. People believe in a female spirit that guards ancestors as well as resources. To show respect, the farmers pray and offer food - often, sweet rice porridge - to her.
JAPAN'S RELATIONSHIP TO RICE
Even more so than most Asian nations, Japan has a special relationship with rice, having been cultivated there for 2,000 years. It's the ninth biggest rice producer in the world and appoximately 85% of the 2.3 million farms in Japan plant rice yearly. While famers in Japan consider rice growing a part-time occupation, many Japanese see rice production as part of their cultural heritage.
So integral is it to the culture, that it's part of the language. The Japanese equivalents for breakfast, lunch and dinner (asagohan, hirugohanand bangohan) can be translated to "morning rice," "afternoon rice" and "evening rice." And the word gohan means either "cooked rice" or "meal."
It's believed by some experts that Japanese social behaviour was literally cultivated in rice fields. The notion of harmony and concensus that pervades Japanese society is rooted in the need in ancient times for families to pool their water and irrigation resources to make rice. Group harmony was essential for everyone's rice crops to be tended to. Thus, even the concept of amae - a feeling of dependency - can be derived from ancient practices.
The culture of rice making required an emphasis on group decision-making and the disregard for any friction between families who would need to rely on each other for decades and generations in order to keep the rice cultivation going. (Source: Japan Digest, Nov. 1993, Linda S. Wojtan).
In addition, Japan's emperor is thought to be the top "priest" In the Shinto religion. Emperors were required to bless crops and many royal rituals required the use of sake (rice wine) and mochi (rice cakes). As well, emperors would tend a rice plot on the imperial grounds in Tokyo. Currently, Emperor Akihito continues the practice of blessing crops.
The Japan Digest article mentions that nearly all parts of the rice plant was used with the stalks being turned into tatami mats, the bran as face scrub and rice paste used in book binding and the dyeing of fabrics.
Accordingly, Japan's rice market is fiercely protected from foreign rice imports. Each year, the government regulates the amount of land used for cultivation and oversees the distribution, establishing the price paid for rice. Accordingly, consumers there pay a dear price to retain what they regard as a crucial crop for their emotional and psychological sense of being Japanese.
