Bali's rice is grown by irrigation societies that share one water source and settle among themselves who floods when and who repairs what (board).
The word subak is first met in a written text of about the eleventh century (en.wikipedia; the campaign board gives a charter of 1072, which we could not check), and the system is thought to begin in the ninth century. UNESCO calls the Pakerisan watershed the oldest known irrigation system in Bali (en.wikipedia). The valley runs south from Tampaksiring, with Tirta Empul and Gunung Kawi, through Pejeng and Bedulu, the royal ridge, to the coast: the water and the kings meet here.
It is not a royal work: the king taxes it, he does not run it, and that is the whole difference between Bali and the Brantas (board). The members' meeting (paruman) decides when water goes into the channels, and the priests of the water temples keep the order, with the lake temple at Batur as the head (en.wikipedia, for the later practice).
Who holds it
- Title
- The pekaseh (heads) of the subak and the village assemblies
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- low
In later practice a subak is led by a chairman, the pekaseh (kelihan subak), and the larger ones by a council and a pekaseh gede (en.wikipedia). No head of 1200 is named; the Old Balinese plates are addressed to village assemblies (see Karaman).
Overlord
the queen and her son by tax, not by management (board)
What it holds
- Weirs, tunnel channels and terraces of the Pakerisan watershed
- The members' meeting and the water temples
How things stand that morning
A standing institution; nothing is dated for the winter.
Wealth
Irrigated rice; no figures.
Military
None attested.
Places of note
- Tampaksiring (Tirta Empul and Gunung Kawi): Head of the valley.
- Pakerisan subak (board point): The campaign board point.
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board entry subak-pakerisan says the word appears on a charter of 1072. en.wikipedia says only that the first written record is of about the eleventh century (kasuwakara, later suwak, then subak) and names no charter; we keep 'about the eleventh century' and the campaign board's 1072 as unchecked.
Evidence: The institution is documented from the eleventh century; its shape in 1200 is the continuity of later practice.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: A rough outline of the valley and its rice terraces; the societies themselves have no mapped limits.
Primary sources for Bali
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- Old Javanese Charters (the Brandes and Krom corpus), including the Kediri inscriptions of Kamesvara and Srngga, Various (the Kediri kings and their officers), edited by J. L. A. Brandes and N. J. Krom (inscriptions of the 8th to 15th centuries; edited 1913). Kediri (Panjalu) in 1200 is known from a few royal charters on stone and copper, which this corpus first printed: the records of Kamesvara (about 1182 to 1194) and of Srngga, that is Kertajaya (from about 1194 to 1222), among them the Kamulan charter of 1194 and the Palah (Panataran) record of 1197, with the king's titles, his seal, the officials of the court and the villages freed from tax.
- The Description of the Country, called the Nagarakretagama, Mpu Prapanca (1365 at the Majapahit court). A Majapahit court poem of 1365 listed here only for its retrospect. Read online
Sources and studies
- Wikipedia (en), Subak (irrigation) (read in this pass): system begun in the 9th century, first written record about the 11th century (kasuwakara), pekaseh and paruman, UNESCO calls the Pakerisan watershed the oldest known irrigation system in Bali
- Wikipedia (en), Warmadewa dynasty (read in this pass): Blanjong pillar, Udayana, Abang Pura Batur A 6 April 1011
- Wikipedia (en), History of Bali (read in this pass): Blanjong pillar 4 February 914, Jayapangus plates, Kertanegara 1284, Gajah Mada 1343
- R. Goris, Prasasti Bali (1954), the Old Balinese charters; recalled, not re-read
- General knowledge of Old Javanese and Old Balinese epigraphy and the archaeology of Java, recalled and not re-read in this pass (Boechari, Poerbatjaraka, Soekmono, Bernet Kempers)
- OMNIA board notes for the place (a lead, not a source)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.