Origin and History of Rice “Rice is intimately in the culture as well as the food ways and economy of many societies.”(www.riceweb.org p.1). For example, folklore tells us that when the Kachins of northern Myanmar (Burma) were sent forth from the center of the Earth, they were given the seeds of rice and were directed to a wondrous country where everything was perfect and where rice grew well. Also in Bali, it is believed that the Lord Vishnu caused the Earth to give birth to rice, and the God Indra taught the people how to raise it. In Chinese myths, by contrast, tells of rice being a gift of animals rather than of gods. China had been visited by an especially severe period of flood