These rice sheaf paddles or panaptapan were used in Bali to even the ends of the harvested rice before it was stored in the rice barn. The Balinese traditionally planted several types of rice, known generically as padi bali. This crop grew over a period of about 150 days to a height of a metre and a half. Farmers would use panaptapan to pound the ends of the stems to make a uniform sheaf. New hybrid strains are shorter than the "old Bali" rice and their grains are more loosely held to the stalk. Therefore today most rice is threshed in the fields, rather than stored on the stalk in the rice barns. (The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco).

24 x 18cm.

Pigment wood|price on request.