Harvest time, and the homespun tents are up as migrants move in to help out, most of them from Java.

But according to the authorities in one regency, Gianyar, the temporary dwellers who live in the ricefields they work in are despoiling the island’s panoramas and unintentionally destroying part of Bali’s culture – the traditional Balinese way of harvesting known as Seke Manyi, which translates as communal harvesting.

Further, the administration argues, ricefields are holy places, according to prevailing Hindu beliefs, and menstruating women are not permitted to enter them.