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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] Integrated sustainable rural homesteading

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  • From: "Ben Martin Horst" <ben.martinhorst@gmail.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Integrated sustainable rural homesteading
  • Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2006 11:53:37 -0700

Similar terracing has been done, I understand, in several regions of
Southeast Asia. The only ones I've had the pleasure to visit were
constructed by the Ifugao and related people in highland Luzon,
Philippines -- the Banaue rice terraces are particularly
impressive,spanning acres and acres (both horizontally and
vertically). Filipinos ferquently refer to them as "the eighth wonder
of the world." A google image search using the terms "banaue" and
"terraces" will get you some nice shots.

As I recall, the Luzon rice terraces have been in development for
centuries ... at least five hundred years, and probably more like a
millenium at some sites. The primary product for human consumption is,
of course, rice (an exquisite red upland variety whose like I have
never tasted elsewhere), but people also gather fish, frogs, snails,
and other foodstuffs from the terraces. The terraces require a lot of
maintainance, and sadly, as many young people leave their communities
to find work in places like Sagada and Metro Manila, quite a few of
the terraces are falling into disrepair.

While of interest to permaculturalists for obvious reasons, I have
seen few human-built structures that can compare with the terraces on
simple aesthetic grounds. When the terraces are flooded, they are like
a vertical lake, reflecting the sky up the entire mountainside. When
planted, they are the stunningly vibrant emerald green that you see in
the Vietnam photos.

Ben

On 8/16/06, Lawrence F. London, Jr. <lfl@intrex.net> wrote:
Forest Garden wrote:

> Those photos were amzing. How many generations did it take for them to do
> all that terracing?

I don't really know but considering the acreage (many mountainsides) and
steep terrain
it could have taken hundreds of years. I do not know the ethnicity of the
happy people in those pix nor their history in
that particular region but you might assume that they are not nomadic and
may represent dozens of generations of their
families who have lived in that general region or locale. If ancient people
lived there then the project could have
started a thousand or more years ago. A good anthropology text would shed
some light on this.

Noctaire wrote:

> Correct me if I'm wrong, but the terracing is for growing rice --
correct?

It is. Rain collects on the terraces which are dammed up at rice planting
time to thwart weed growth, then drained as
the rice could drown also if left submerged for too long.

Notice the small homestead on one of the steep slopes. They have an
extensive grape arbor (I assume it is grapes or some
semi-tropical fruit), outhouse, clothes line and some yard. Just like home.


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