Four investigators conducted participative observation at 4 hamlets, representing 4 typical topography in the area, wet or dry near the river and wet or dry far from the river, in District Rambutan, South Sumatera Province, Indonesia from July 1988 up until February 1989 to study the community perception and practices on diarrheal diseases (DD). The observation was supported by focus group discussions and informal interviews. It was found that the causes of DD can be grouped into: dirty water; wrong (cold, hot, sting) food; part of the growth process; physical condition (extreme heat, cold wind and inner abnormality, inner heat, muscle strain), and supernatural. The type of DD can be grouped into: mild without vomiting named ngadi, negenteng-ngentengi, nambah kepacakan, etc which was linked to the growth process; more severe diarrhea, might be with fever (mising-mising, murus, mencret, etc); more severe diarrhea with severe vomiting (muntager, kolera); bloody/mucoid stool (disentri, mising tai angin, mising umbal). The community had also the concept of prolonged diarrhea named as menerus (literally meaning prolonged) Muntaber was more associated with bad water while the prolonged one was more associated with inner abnormality. The danger of diarrhea perceived was susut = shrinkage, lisut = emaciation. Pale and red hair with lisut were recognized as the dangers of prolonged diarrhea. The community did not associate these conditions with fluid loss. The management started by self medication using tapel (pasta of herb applied) to the stomach), decoct (daun jambu, akar teratai etc), solid oral preparation (cassava with raw sugar, rast rice, etc).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)