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THE BOOK

Rice is involved in so many aspects of Asian cultures that considering it exclusively as a food is to have only a partial understanding of its importance to communities in South and Southeast Asia, China, Korea, and Japan. Throughout Asia, rites and ceremonies mark the sowing, transplanting, growing, harvesting, storing, cooking, and eating of rice. The Art of Rice takes the reader on a remarkable narrative and visual journey to remote and well-traveled locales in Asia, all having rice as a staple food. Modern communities that have abandoned ancient rites associated with rice, contrast with rural villages that retain some, or most, of the ancient ways.