Yogyakarta seeks to get back ancient books

Asip A. Hasani, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

The royal family of Yogyakarta Palace has called on members of public, especially those living overseas, to return thousands of the Palace's ancient books, which were looted by British and Dutch soldiers in colonial era.

The chief of the Palace's internal affairs, Prince Joyokusumo, said on Thursday that those who had the collections of Yogyakarta Palace's Library in their possession should surrender them, as they are Palace property.

"The seizure of our ancient books by Dutch and British colonialists began with the reign of the first King of the Palace Hamengkubuwono I, until that of the fourth king, Hamengkubuwono IV, and only ended when Sultan Hamengkubuwono V was crowned as King of the Palace," he said after meeting with the Sultan of Yogyakarta Palace Hamengkubuwono X, who is also Yogyakarta Governor.

Most parts of the country, including Java Island, were under Dutch settlement for about three-and-a-half centuries beginning in the 17th century.

The British, meanwhile, occupied the country for shorter time, from 1811 to 1816, before the Dutch colonial reoccupied Indonesia.

Joyokusumo said that the British colonial administrator, Sir Stamford Raffles, and the Dutch colonial governor, Herman Williem Daendels, were the ones responsible for the looting of the collections of the Palace's Library.

"There are now less than a thousand collections in our library," said Joyokusumo, who is also a member of the People's Consultative Assembly.

The missing collections, he said, were mostly the valuable ones, which included ancient literature from poets of the ancient Mataram Kingdom.

He said that Yogyakarta Palace had once talked to the government about the missing collections of the Palace Library, but had received no concrete response.

He said that the Palace Library was currently collecting records of its collections, including the missing ones, as part of efforts to get the missing collections back.

He admitted, however, that the royal family as yet has no concrete ideas on how to take back the missing collections.

Joyokusumo, the younger brother of Hamengkubuwono X, said that some collections of the Palace's Library have been put on public sale, both in the country and in overseas markets and bookstores.

"Recently, Queen GKR Hemas bought an ancient book which is one of our missing collections, at Rp 200,000 from the local market here," he said, referring to Hamengkubuwono X's wife.

He said that the words "Kawedanan Agung Punokawan Widya Wiwaha" were written on some of the Palace's missing books.