12 November 2009

Royal Safari Garden Hotel Puncak: Goddess of Rice Pond

The Royal Safari Garden Hotel, Puncak, is a place where you could go with the entire family. There are so many activity choices that I think no one will be left out.

Here at the Goddess of Rice Pond, you can rent water bikes and feed some big goldfish. If you are not in the mood to go on a water bike, you could just sit at the benches or under an umbrella or stand at the bridges while watching fish or feeding them.

Besides this pond, the Royal Safari Garden Hotel has also a pond with a little bird island and another one for fishing activities.

Goddess of Rice Pond

You can see the Goddess of Rice pond at the Royal Safari Garden Hotel & Restaurant in the photo above. According to the Wikipedia:

Dewi Sri is the goddess of rice on the island of Bali and Java. She has the power of the underworld and the moon. She controls the foodstuffs of the Earth and death. She is the mother of life because she symbolizes rice (the primary food of Indonesia). Highly revered especially by the Javanese, Balinese, and Sundanese people of Indonesia, there are a lot of versions of her legend in Indonesia, most of them involve Dewi Sri (also known as Dewi Asri, Nyi Pohaci, etc) and her brother Sedana (also known as Sadhana, Sadono, etc), set either in the kingdom of Medang Kamulan, or in the heaven (involving gods such as Batara Guru), or both. In all the versions in which Sedana appears along with Dewi Sri, they end up separated from each other, through either death, wandering, or a refusal to be married. Some versions made correlation between Sri and large snake of the rice field (ular sawah) and Sadhana with swallow (sriti). The traditional Javanese people in particular have a special place in their house dedicated for Dewi Sri, decorated with intricate carvings of snake, so that she will give prosperity for them. In the agricultural Javanese, a snake who entered a house won't be chased away as it is a sign for a success in harvest, and they will give it offerings instead. The Balinese provide special shrines in the rice fields for her. The Sundanese have a special festival dedicated to her.

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