'Lontar' texts clue to old Balinese life<\/p>\n
SINGARAJA, North Bali (JP): If your child suffers from chicken
\npox, you may not need to take him or her to a doctor -- as long
\nas you can master the ancient Balinese manuscript titled Usada
\nKecacar.<\/p>\n
The old manuscript deals with ways to treat people suffering
\nfrom the illness.<\/p>\n
\"Much of the old manuscripts' contents is still relevant to
\nmodern times,\" said Gde Suparna, a staff member at the Gedong
\nKirtya library.<\/p>\n
He said if someone was affected by black magic (leyak) a
\nmantra from one of the manuscripts was used to heal the person
\nand expel its bad influence.<\/p>\n
Even cockfighting, a traditional folk game, was regulated in
\nthe lontar text, he said.<\/p>\n
Bali lontar manuscripts consist of different types of
\ninformation ranging from traditional and religious customs, laws,
\nmedicine, literary forms, state administration and history to
\nsong compositions and children's stories.<\/p>\n
Scholar Raechelle Rubinstein in Illumination, The Writing
\nTradition in Indonesia wrote that the origin of writing on lontar
\nleaves could not be pinpointed. It is thought to have been
\nderived from the ancient Indian practice of writing on the leaf
\nof the talipot palm (Corypha umbraculifera), which dates back to
\nthe first century A.D.<\/p>\n
The lontar leaf is from the palmyra species of the palm
\nborassus flabellifer, and has been used for centuries by Balinese
\nscholars to record various issues in ancient Bali.<\/p>\n
One important use of lontar leaf writing was for record
\nkeeping. Scholars recorded the earlier cross-cultural and
\ninterreligious contacts among Hindu, Buddha and Islam in Java,
\nMalaysia and India.<\/p>\n
Rubinstein categorized the lontar texts into several forms.<\/p>\n
The first form was of personal and communal records, such as
\ntransactions for goods and memoranda or pipil desa (the village
\naffairs), and were made on lontar leaves.<\/p>\n
The leaves were also used to record supra-village ordinances,
\nsuch as regulations for rice cultivation and sima subak
\n(irrigation) and cockfighting.<\/p>\n
The second use for the leaves was in epistolary matters.
\nBefore paper was plentiful and cheap, people from all social
\ngroups wrote letters to each other in Balinese on the leaves.<\/p>\n
A third group of text written on the leaves comprises the
\nesoteric specialist lore that specialist practitioners must
\nmaster. This text is composed in Sanskrit, Kawi and Balinese, or
\na mixture of these languages.<\/p>\n
The Ida Pedanda (Brahmana high priest) had his own text,
\nliturgical texts that consist of compilations of weda (prayers)
\nin Sanskrit interspersed with short explanations of the priest's
\nritual actions in Kawi. Many other specialist manuals borrow from
\nor are influenced by this liturgy.<\/p>\n
Pemangku (temple caretakers) had the Gagelaran Pemangku or
\nKusuma Dewa. Some others read the Purwaka Bhumi, while sengguhu
\n(exorcist priests) read the litany Sudra, wayang puppeteers pored
\nover the Dharma Pawayangan, sangging (artists) possessed the
\nDharma Pasanggingan and the balian usadha (traditional healers)
\nwhose lore is recorded in various medical texts or usada, kept
\nthe Usada Kacacar.<\/p>\n
There are other esoteric specialist manuals that have a wider
\nreadership than the groups mentioned but they constituted the
\ntutur (philosophical and religious treaties) of magic-religious
\nimport. The Tutur Aji Saraswati is a book of illustrations. It
\nconcerns the philosophical foundation of alphabet mysticism and
\nritual literacy. As the basic manual on this subject, it is
\nstudied by all literate practitioners who are involved in magic-
\nreligious vocations.<\/p>\n
Another subgroup of specialist writings appears to have no
\nspecific association with present-day vocations. It includes the
\nabove-mentioned Pangayam-ayaman, which concerns the
\ncharacteristics of roosters and is used for betting at
\ncockfights.<\/p>\n
A fourth type of information recorded in lontar manuscripts is
\ngenealogical and historical in character. The term commonly used
\nto call such writings is babad. Most babad are composed in a
\nmixture of Kawi and literary Balinese and are in prose, sometimes
\ninterspersed with sloka (Sanskrit verses).<\/p>\n
The royal house of Klungkung, the former kingdom of highest
\nstatus in Bali, is often credited with writing the above-
\nmentioned Kidung Pamancangah. Some scholars view this text as the
\nfirst major dynastic genealogy.<\/p>\n
A fifth distinctive category of lontar text comprises literary
\nworks that are often referred to as \"belles-letters\". Prose texts
\ncomposed in Kawi, such as the parwa, ancient Javanese renditions
\nof the books of the Indian Mahabharata epic.<\/p>\n
Kekawin (poems) composed in Sanskrit, are like the parwa, as
\nmany kekawin derive their narrative material from Indian epic
\nliterature, such as the Ramayana and Mahabharata.<\/p>\n
They relate stories about the gods, demons and legendary
\nheroes, and impart religious, ethical and philosophical teachings
\nand evoke the Indian source of Balinese culture.<\/p>\n
The most popular kekawin in contemporary Balinese are the
\nRamayana, Bharatayudha, Sutasoma, Arjunawiwaha and Bhomakawya,
\nall of which were composed in ancient Java. Other literary works
\nare kidung, poems and geguritan.<\/p>\n
Today, the lontar manuscript tradition is one of many
\ncasualties of the profound social, cultural and technological
\nchanges taking place in Bali as it becomes involved in the
\ndevelopment programs of Indonesia's government, and also succumbs
\nto influences from abroad.<\/p>\n
A serious threat to the tradition's survival comes from the
\nalternative writing medium of paper, Rubinstein wrote.<\/p>\n
The existence of a plentiful cheap supply of paper in the
\ntwentieth century has paved the way for a series of technological
\ndevelopments that in turn have had a deleterious effect on the
\nlontar manuscript tradition. (raw)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/lontar-texts-clue-to-old-balinese-life-1447893297",
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