Gedong Kirtya, a home to precious Balinese manuscripts

Gedong Kirtya, a home to precious Balinese manuscripts

By Rita A. Widiadana

SINGARAJA, North Bali (JP): To many foreign and domestic
tourists visiting the northern part of Bali, the modest and dusty
Gedong Kirtya library on Jl. Veteran, Singaraja (the capital city
of the Buleleng regency), possess no glittering attraction.

Only a few local people and dozens of foreigners, literary
scholars and linguists in particular, recognize the importance of
this poorly-managed library as it houses part of the most
precious Balinese literary assets.

Ketut Suasta, a tour guide, accompanied two German couples who
were eager to learn Balinese culture. "Older visitors, especially
those from the Netherlands and Japan usually ask me to take them
to historical and important places like Gedong Kirtya," Suasta
said.

Noted French anthropologist Michelle Picard rarely skip his
Gedong Kirtya visit when he is in Bali.

"These are the best and the rarest collection of Balinese
manuscripts which must be preserved," Michelle once said.

Gedong Kirtya, founded in l928 and named Kirtya Liefrinck van
de Tuuk, has an abundance of ancient Balinese writing tradition,
many of them had been shipped abroad during the Dutch colonial
period.

Gde Suparna, a library staff, said these valuable collection
of more than 2,000 titles of lontar (palm leaf) manuscripts and
8,000 titles of antique books are in delicate condition.

"Our storage system is very poor and far from the required
standard of a library," said Suparna.

The lontar collection are improperly stored in a tiny room
with no air conditioning to control its temperature. The lontar
manuscripts are placed in wooden book cases called Kropak
according to subject categories.

The collection include manuscripts on Mantrastwa (Gods'
devotion), Kalpacastra (Hindu religious ceremonies), Palakarta
(village rules or awig-awig desa),Niticastra (state
administration), Wariga Manusia Yadnya (Balinese life cycle
ceremonies), Tutur (philosophy), Kanda (part of the Ramayana epic
which consists of magical know-how), Usada (traditional
medicine), Parwa (Mahabharata epic), Geguritan (songs), and Babad
and Satua (children's stories).

Most of old Balinese literature, historiography, religions,
customs, traditional medicines and many other wisdom exist only
in manuscript forms.

"I am very concerned that neither the Balinese people nor the
provincial government pay any interest in learning and
preserving the contents of the Lontar manuscripts which actually
consist of various aspects of life," he said.

The present 12 staff find it difficult to take care of these
decaying legacy.

"We don't even have a proper typewriter, let alone computers
or a copy machine to register and record the library's
collection," said Suparna.

Singaraja's hot and humid climate have worsened the condition
of the lontar.

In the tropics, preserving and caring for book collections are
really a difficult and costly business. Natural enemies like
animals, insects, microorganism (molds, fungi, bacteria) and
other chemical substances caused by air pollution may gradually
destroy the collections.

The library's treasurer maintained it has inadequate funds to
carry out a simple maintenance procedure. This fiscal year, the
library received Rp 15 million in funds.

"This was the very first time, the regional government
provided a maintenance fund," he said.

With such a meager amount of money, the staff can only do very
little to preserve the island's literary inheritance.

"We really want to increase our collection by buying books
from Balinese scholars or their families but we don't have any
money," he said.

As a result, the scholars' families have sold their
possessions to overseas museums and individual collectors.

In October last year, the library was almost destroyed by the
mass during a riot. Many followers of Megawati Soekarnoputri,
chairman of the PDI-P (Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle),
felt disappointed because their leader failed to get presidential
seat and then they set a riot burning government offices and
public facilities in Singaraja.

"It was so lucky that many people helped us saved these
priceless collections to the Puri (former palace) next door,
otherwise these properties would be burned," recalled a staff.

Literary scholar Alan Feinstein in The Preservation of
Manuscripts in Indonesia, which is part of the book titled
Illuminations, The Writing Tradition in Indonesia, reveals that
as a developing nation with equally pressing economic and social
problems to deal with, Indonesia has very limited resources to
bear upon preserving its books for posterity and making them
available to a geographically dispersed readership.

"These dire prospects of loss have not gone unnoticed by
scholars, librarians or bibliophiles in Indonesia and abroad,
though attempts to prevent it have only really been made in the
last ten to fifteen years," Feinstein was quoted as saying.

The earliest efforts to copy Balinese manuscripts was made by
Christian Hooykaas, a Dutch colonial language officer, who
started a project with his Balinese colleagues in l939 but it was
halted by the Japanese invasion.

Hooykaas and his Balinese assistant I Gusti Ngurah Ketut
Sangka recommenced the project in l972 and after Hooykaas'
untimely death in l979, his student H.I.R. Hinzler carried on as
its informal supervisor. The Proyek Tik or Balinese Manuscript
Project involves the romanized transliteration of Balinese lontar
in public and private collections throughout the islands.

Hooykaas and Hinzler arranged to have copies deposited with
various "subscribing" libraries in Singaraja, Denpasar, Jakarta,
Leiden, Berlin, London, Paris, Ithaca, Sydney, Auckland and
elsewhere.

"The public awareness on the problems of conserving
Indonesia's heritage is very low. Book preservation is on a par
with those of pressing issues," he said.

Efforts should be made to increase public and scholarly
interest in the contents of the nation's rich written heritage.