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Leuit is a type of
The ''Seren Taun'' rituals marks the start of a new agricultural cycle, and are varied among each villages, however the main ritual is the procession to presenting the rice to community leader. The peak of this ritual is the ''Ngadiukeun'' ceremony, which involves storing rice hulls into the village's rice barn. The community leader later gave ''indung pare'' (mother of rice) that already blessed to the villages leaders to be planted in next agriculture cycle.
Leuit is a type of vernacular
Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...
rice barn
A rice barn is a type of barn used worldwide for the storage and drying of harvested rice. The barns' designs are usually specialized to their function, and as such may vary between countries or between provinces. Rice barns in Southeast Asia appe ...
found in the Sundanese architecture of Western Java, Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
. It used to store rice after harvest for future and daily use. A leuit is an essential part of Sundanese agricultural tradition, especially during annual '' Seren Taun'' harvest ceremony. In Sundanese tradition, leuit symbolizes sustenance and livelihood.
History
The stiltedrice barn
A rice barn is a type of barn used worldwide for the storage and drying of harvested rice. The barns' designs are usually specialized to their function, and as such may vary between countries or between provinces. Rice barns in Southeast Asia appe ...
structure with its variations is common throughout Indonesian archipelago. It can be found in Minangkabau tradition as ''Rangkiang
Rangkiang (also lumbuang) is a granary or rice barn that the Minangkabau people used to keep rice in. The rangkiang is a distinctive feature of Minangkabau architecture. The structure is traditionally found in the courtyard of a '' rumah gadang ...
'', also in Batak, Toraja, and Sasak traditions. A leuit, or similar structure of it, is believed as an ancient structure which was quite common in agricultural society of Java. A study of bas-relief from the hidden foot of the 9th-century Borobudur
Borobudur, also transcribed Barabudur (, ), is a 9th-century Mahayana Buddhist temple in Magelang Regency, near the city of Magelang and the town of Muntilan, in Central Java, Indonesia.
Constructed of gray andesite-like stone, the temple consi ...
in Central Java revealed that the ancient Javanese rice barn is remarkably similar to the Sundanese ''leuit lenggang'' (long stilted rice barn), which demonstrate a continuous tradition of rice barn construction in the island.
Form and materials
Leuit take basic form of triangulargable roof
A gable roof is a roof consisting of two sections whose upper horizontal edges meet to form its ridge. The most common roof shape in cold or temperate climates, it is constructed of rafters, roof trusses or purlins. The pitch of a gable roof c ...
ed structure, made of thatched
Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge ('' Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...
materials (''ijuk'' black '' aren'' fibers, ''hateup'' or ''kirai'' leaves, or palm leaves) covering wooden frames and beams, woven bamboo
Bamboos are a diverse group of mostly evergreen perennial plant, perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily (biology), subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family, in th ...
walls, and its structure is built on stilt
Stilt is a common name for several species of birds in the family Recurvirostridae, which also includes those known as avocets. They are found in brackish or saline wetlands in warm or hot climates.
They have extremely long legs, hence the grou ...
s either short or long. The leuit took form of rectangular structure with upper section is slightly wider than the lower section. The door of the rice barn is located on the upper section, and to reach it requires bamboo stairs.
Leuit with short stilts is called ''leuit tetepakan'', usually has 8 or 10 short stilts, while the more ancient and rarely found leuit with four long stilts is called ''leuit lenggang''. In ''leuit lenggang'' the gaps between the stilts pole and the leuit structure contains round logs that serves to block rats from rising into rice storage.
Tradition
The ''Seren Taun'' rituals marks the start of a new agricultural cycle, and are varied among each villages, however the main ritual is the procession to presenting the rice to community leader. The peak of this ritual is the ''Ngadiukeun'' ceremony, which involves storing rice hulls into the village's rice barn. The community leader later gave ''indung pare'' (mother of rice) that already blessed to the villages leaders to be planted in next agriculture cycle.
See also
* Sundanese traditional house *Rangkiang
Rangkiang (also lumbuang) is a granary or rice barn that the Minangkabau people used to keep rice in. The rangkiang is a distinctive feature of Minangkabau architecture. The structure is traditionally found in the courtyard of a '' rumah gadang ...
References
External links
* {{Indonesian architecture Rumah adat Granaries Sundanese culture +