Rice is Life

Rice Is Life

Rice is part of Thai people’s living and staple food in Thailand. It is the base of Thai culture that has inherited from generation to generation. So it is an important food in Thailand. No matter what you eat or where you live there is always rice in every meal. Some people say if they don’t eat rice, they will feel nervous and limp. There is no food on earth more important than rice. “Rice” is just a small word but it is valuable. Many places on the earth have rice as staple food. In Thailand the famous rice that all people know well is jasmine rice

Where is the rice from?

( Mae-Pho-Sob / Rice Grain Goddess )

We think a lot of people don’t know the answer of this question. The origin of rice could be back about 230-600 million years ago in Gondwanaland(the name given to a southern precursor supercontinent including most of thelandmasses in today's southern hemisphere. Rice vegetated in the forest called rice forest. Then, about 15,000 years ago people only knew how to pick rice to eat by season. Later, about 10,000 years ago people learnt how to plant and harvest the rice. That is the beginning of rice.

However,it is believed that there is a legend to explain where the rice comes from.Thai people in the past believed in ghost and angel. They believed that rice is a holy plant. There is an angel that protects the rice called Mae-Pho-sob (Rice Grain Goddess). At first she was a plant in heaven. Then Indar, the King of the gods or Devas and Lord of Heaven or Svargaloka in Hindu mythology, and also he is the God of War, Storms, and Rainfall, told her to go to the earth to help people from starvation. So ancestors of farmers always paid respect and worship because they believed if they took good care of Mae-Pho-sob, she wouldn’t escape from rice farm and didn’t make rice luxuriates.

Like one of the legend of the north and southeast people, the story called “widow hit the rice”. Once upon a time there was a poor widow. She didn’t have a knife to slice the rice (based on a legend, rice in the past was very big). So she used a lever hit to the rice until the rice exploded. Mae-Po-Sop felt very upset that the widow did violence so she escaped from the rice farm to the cave. Then, this made people had no rice to eat for 1,000 years.

Rice culture

(Cave Drawings At Pha-Mon-Noi, Ubonratchatani)

According to Rice Thai Culture Life book “Archaeological evidence found in different parts of Thailand indicates that rice was grown in this country not less than 5,000 years ago, 1,000 years earlier than in India and China. Traces of rice husks in archaic ceramics, rice grain in ancient caves and cave drawings”

This can show that rice culture in Thailand continues not less than 5,000 years. It also appears in art work and ceremony.

Thai farmers have rice ceremonies around their plantation and harvest seasons. In all stages of rice growing since prepare the land to harvest, Thai farmers will do ceremonies to pray for Mae-Pho-Sob and ghosts who protect the farm and to take good care of all stages of rice. The main objectives of rice ceremonies are to show our respect to Mae-Pho-Sob and ghosts and show that we have to make remuneration as gratitude to rice.

The important rice ceremony that will be held every year is Royal Ploughing ceremony. This ceremony is performed to foretell the year’s crop. Farmers and people who are interested in farming will join this ceremony and wait for the grain laid on the field after the ceremony. They believe the grain from this ceremony is holy grain. They will keep this grain to worship for happiness and make rice grow well.

We can see that in a lot of ceremonies rice is a main components, for example in 12 months as belief in religion of southeast people, they hold 12 ceremonies in each month. It is called Heet 12. The name and process of each ceremony always have rice. They have “Bun-Kao-Ji” in the full moon day of the third month which is Makha Buja day. It is a ceremony of rice which people cook Kao-Ji (broiled sticky rice) and offer to monk. The main objective is to thank paddy kept in the storage.

In Thai language, there are idioms that have the word “rice” in it. Because these idioms are from ancient that tired to show how people lived in the past or how rice was important to them.

You can see that rice does not only have meaning in dictionary but also has a lot of effects that relate closely to Thai people’s living for very long time.

Food from Rice

Rice is a source of energy. Rice has a lot of benefits. Rice leaves can be made rice tea leaves. Rice can be made many dishes, desserts, noodles or cosmetics. Rice has a lot of nutritions. Rice grain is rich in carbohydrate and has a moderate amount of protein, B vitamins and dietary fiber. Moreover, brown rice has more nutrition. But in the past it wasn’t popular because it took longer time to cook. Now brown rice becomes popular because the research about nutrition proved that it contains GABA (Amino butyric acid it make us laugh with happiness)

(Kao-Tang-Tod)

One of our favorite desserts from rice is Kao-Tang-Tod. It is made from the crust rice sticking to the bottom of a rice pan. It is then fried and sprinkled with sugar. It is a favorite family snack. Kao Tu is another dessert made from rice. It is prepared by grinding dried left over rice, mixing it with heavy syrup and ground roasted rice grain before shaping this into thick coins. It has a very sweet smell

How long is rice grown?

We have to prepare the land for growing rice. It takes about 7 weeks and then in June or July we sow rice. When farmers sow rice, it takes 100-110 days. After that, they will harvest them when the rice fields turn gold.

Farmer is the spine of the nation

This phrase is true because Thai farmers have grown rice for all people in the country. Rice is not only our main food but also it is our main export product. So farmer is the main power of country.

Ps. So, how about Japanese legend about Rice?


Reference

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Book :

Rice, The Grain Of Culture By Dr. Kwanjai Gomade

Rice Is Life = Intermational Year Of Rice 2004 And It's Implementation

Rice : Thai Culture Life By Plan Motif Publishers

Rice By TT&T


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