Bidayuh Pesta Birumuh - Padi harvesting - Ngutum

When most of the padi have ripen, it time for harvesting. The Bidayuh called harvesting as "Ngutum" or "Ngutuom". And this time is actually very hectic because the farmers are rushing to harvest as much as they can before the rain comes and also to beat the birds to the padi.


You sure get sun-tanned very fast during padi harvesting.


Little boy helping with the padi harvesting.


Little girl helping with the padi harvesting.


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Bidayuh Pesta Birumuh - Padi ripen stalks

Still on ripening padi topics. This time around, the padi grains are turning more yellow.


Ripening padi stalks leaning to the left.


Ripening padi stalks leaning to the right.


Macro shot of black caterpillars with white rings attached on the padi stalks. Talk about caterpillars, see more of them at Tropical caterpillars in all shapes and sizes

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Bidayuh Pesta Birumuh - Padi Ripening

With regards to Bidayuh padi planting cycle, padi planted in October will bear fruits sometime in late January. By late March, most padi started to ripen.


Ripening padi stalks.


Over view of padi fields before harvesting.


Before harvesting season, the sky are fine on most days. This speed up the ripening process of the padi grains.


For the Bidayuh kids, with fine weather they take opportunity to play around at padi fields. These kids will sweat it out in the next few weeks to help their parents harvesting the padi.

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Bidayuh Pesta Birumuh - Padi bearing fruits

The padi started to produce flowers just after the rainy season. Padi flowering started between January to late February.


Flowering padi.


Green young padi.


When the padi fruits are heavy, it's stalk is bending down.


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Bidayuh Pesta Birumuh - Young padi with waterdroplets

After planting of padi seeds during nuruk, waiting for the shootlet to grow and weeding the land, there is nothing much to do on the padi farm except to watch the padi grow bigger by the day.

In addition to that, it is also a rainy season and padi farmers during this period are quite a idling lots. Rainy season usually starts from late November to end of February.

So, if you have a camera, the most logical and rewarding activity is to snap some macro shot of the padi plants. An interesting composition is to take close up shot of morning dews on the padi leave blades.


It's real. Water marbles on padi blades.


Water marbles or waterdroplets stick to the blades when the padi leave is young as the leave have plenty of tiny "furs".


Waterdroplets sticking to the padi leave blade.


More macro shot of morning dew on padi blades.


Big water marbles, tiney water marbles.


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Bidayuh Pesta Birumuh - Weeding - Ngebu

Within a month or two, from shootlets, the padi grow stronger and taller and produce longer leave blades. The problem is that, when padi grow, so does the weeds and foreign grasses. This is because while the padi are still short, there are much opening or space between the cluster of padi for the grass to grow.

The padi farmer need to upkeep the land to prevent the weeds and grasses from stunning the padi growth. For a few weeks, the womenfolk will do the weeding to pull out those weeds and grass.

Another back breaking jobs for the womenfolk. Weeding or "Ngebu" is usually done once since after that, the padi would grower taller and compacted and leave little space in between them for any grass to grow.


Padi intersperse with other short-term crops such as maize (corn), pumpkin, highland tomatoes (Terong Dayak) and Sawi Dayak. These short-term crops were planted just after the padi planting occasion. Remember the nuruk session.



Fields of padi and weeds. Notice the weeds between the padi clusters. Those weeds need to be remove by hand to prevent the weeds from absorbing the nutrients from the grow and leave little nutrient for the padi.


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Bidayuh Pesta Birumuh - Padi Shootlets

A few days after the padi planting or nuruk session, rain will come and this bring live to the padi seeds. In a couple of weeks, the padi shootlets will grow to about 6 inches tall. See the photos below.


A cluster of paid shootlets with morning dew waterdroplets. Beautiful !


More padi shootlets. Photo shot during morning when the sun is just above the horizon.


Padi shootlets. Wider photo shot.


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Bidayuh Pesta Birumuh - Padi Planting - Nuruk

The traditional way of hill padi planting can be both strenuous, back-breaking and fun. After the land has been cleared and burned, and more tiding up, the farm owner will determine a date for planting. No fix system is used nowadays as padi planting has become a part-time farming hobby.

The common practice now is to do planting on weekend or public holiday as the farm owner will be able to call for more free labour (akin to mutual help). This get-together-padi-planting kind of thing is called gotong-royong. Don't be surprise if you meet a total stranger who help with the planting.

Another thing about this important day, is that the padi planting for hill padi must be done within the same day. Work must be done when everyone is around. Anyway, the planting system for hill padi is device in such as way, that menfolk will lead the planting each carrying a "turuk" or heavy stick (with sharp end) to puncture a hole (called "nuruk") on the ground and the womenfolk following from behind will throw the padi seeds into the holes.


Nuruk time. Men lead the way puncturing holes into the ground with spear-like heavy stick (called "turuk"). Try it for a solid 2 hours without glove and you'll get your hand blistered.


The padi seeds inside the basket (called "tambok") are pinched and thrown into the holes, punctured earlier by the turuk. For young people, bending like that for a couple of hours would be a real torture.


Womenfolk taking a short break. Notice the lady on the left have a tele-conversion on her cell-phone. Some Bidayuh farms, due to its proximity to Kuching city are accessible to mobile telecommunication.


A Bidayuh lady digging into the tambok for padi seeds.


Messy hole. The padi seeds landed at the rim of the hole. Must be man's work.


Neat hole. Notice all the padi seeds landed inside the hole. That's the correct way to do it because you don't want the rain water to wash away the seeds. Remember, it's hill slopes and gravity rules.


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