Ancient texts hold Bali’s past

Alit Kertaraharja, The Jakarta Post, Singaraja | Mon, 09/27/2010

Staff members at Gedong Kirtya, the Bali’s largest repository of lontar manuscripts, held a special religious ritual Saturday to celebrate the knowledge stored in the ancient scrolls.

Kirtya is the only government-run museum devoted to the lontar manuscripts — ancient religious texts engraved on the fronds of the lontar palm. 

A similar institution exists in Leiden, Holland, housing a collection of around 1,700 sets of the

manuscripts.

In Kirtya, the ceremony was officiated by IGB Suduasta, who is also an accomplished lontar writer and painter.

“[The ceremony] was organized in conjunction with the celebration of Saraswati day that falls today,” Gedong Kirtya head I Ketut Suharsana told.

On Saraswati day, Balinese Hindus across the island present offerings of books, which are considered the throne of Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge and the arts. School students wear traditional costumes and join in mass prayer at their school’s shrines.

Assisted by the Kirtya’s staff members, Suduasta placed offerings on the wooden boxes containing the lontar manuscripts as well as on old books on Balinese culture.

“The manuscripts and books contain important information on various aspects of Balinese culture and spirituality, from literary verses of kekawin, genealogical treatises of many clans, theological discourses to traditional medicines. We have also had in our collection lontar manuscripts from Java and Lombok,” Suharsana said.

He estimated that around 2,000 sets of lontar manuscripts are still in the possession of individuals, temples and Brahmin families in Bali.

Built by a lontar lover and former resident of Bali and Lombok, L.J.J Caron, Kirtya was officially opened on September 14, 1928. It was named Kirtya Lefrink-Van der Tuuk after Dr. H.N. Van der Tuuk, a Dutch historian who donated his land and house for the museum. The name Kirtya, which was derived from the Sanskrits’ word for effort, was bestowed by the then King of Buleleng, I Gusti Putu Djelantik.

The lontar manuscripts in Kirtya played a critical role in Professor P.J. Zoetmulder’s decade-long research to compile the seminal Dictionary of Ancient Javanese Language.