In Bali, rice embodies Dewi Sri—the rice mother—goddess of life and fertility. The best loved and most worshipped Hindu deity, she is everywhere, both male and female.
From everyday rituals—such as putting pinches of rice along the edges of
fields
to keep evil spirits and animals at bay—to grand temple celebrations with
elaborate offerings of dyed rice paste, the Balinese fervently honor their
rice mother.
Without Dewi Sri, they believe they would be lifeless and empty. Men,
women and children absorb her life force into their bodies by moistening
their foreheads, temples, and chests with holy water and sticking kernels
of uncooked rice to their skin.
Source: Peter T. White, "Rice: the Essential Harvest,"
National Geographic, May 1994.
Fred B. Eiseman Jr., "Children of the Rice Mother,"
Discovery, Vol. 12, No. 11.
In Bali, rice embodies Dewi Sri—the rice mother—goddess of life and fertility. The best loved and most worshipped Hindu deity, she is everywhere, both male and female. 
fields
to keep evil spirits and animals at bay—to grand temple celebrations with
elaborate offerings of dyed rice paste, the Balinese fervently honor their
rice mother.