Irrigation Tunneling
in Ancient Indonesia
The Harinjing stone inscription near Jombang (Pare) at the village of Siman Krajan. The original inscription is now kept at the National Museum Registered under Reg. No. D.173
In spite of the ancient evidences concerning paddy so far there is no evidence indicated by ancient message on irrigation technology, except the traditional practices of the rural farmer descended from their ancestor, such as canal excavation, diversion weir, temporary diversion structures and rotational water distribution and so on, and yet still practiced today. Particularly for tunnelling technology, most often are only discovered on the lesser islands, such as Bali and Lombok Islands, and few cases on Java Island, though Sumatra Island also has some. The reason of the tunnelling application for irrigation on these particular islands is perhaps due to the specific arid and semi-arid climatology and geographical zones on top of the proper geological structure for tunnel construction. For other tropical zones at the major islands, such as Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Papua Islands, the agricultural lands are mostly at the lowland plain, on top of the effect GANY - INACID 6