Leuit is a type of

vernacular A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...

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 ap ...

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 and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. 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 stilted

structure with its variations is common throughout

Indonesian archipelago * See also: Names of Indonesia , location = Southeast Asia and Oceania , waterbody = * Indian Ocean * Pacific Ocean , total_islands = ± 17,000–18,000 islands , major_islands = , area_km2 = 8,300,000 , area_footnotes = , rank = , length ...

. It can be found in Minangkabau tradition as '' Rangkiang'', also in Batak, Toraja, and Sasak traditions. A leuit, or similar structure of it, is believe as an ancient structure which was quite common in agricultural society of Java. A study of bas-relief from hidden foot of the 9th-century

Borobudur Borobudur, also transcribed Barabudur ( id, Candi Borobudur, jv, ꦕꦤ꧀ꦝꦶꦧꦫꦧꦸꦝꦸꦂ, Candhi Barabudhur) is a 9th-century Mahayana Buddhist temple in Magelang Regency, not far from the town of Muntilan, in Central Java, Indo ...

in Central Java, revealed that the ancient Javanese rice barn is remarkably similar to 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 triangular

gable 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 ...

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 evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, ...

walls, and its structure is built on stilts 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.

References

External links

* {{Indonesian architecture Rumah adat Granaries Sundanese culture