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.