Balinese Manuscripts Project

The project deals with the unlocking of Balinese literature written on palm-leaves in Balinese script. The languages involved are mainly Old Javanese, Balinese, and in a few cases Sanskrit and Malay. The manuscripts are either kept in public or private libraries, or in private homes in Bali or abroad. Texts are made accessible by copying them in Latin script. In the past this was done by means of typewriters but presently computers are used, so there are paper and digital copies at present. The project began in June 1972 under the auspices of Prof. Dr. C. Hooykaas from The Netherlands. It was a continuation of his involvement in Balinese manuscripts as a language specialist in the pre-Pacific War & World War II period. When he was appointed as ‘language functionary for Bali and Lombok’ in 1939, he chose Singaraja as his residence because there was the then-called Kirtya Liefrinck-van der Tuuk (Hooykaas 1973: 35). The foundation was a creation of the ruler of Buleleng, I Gusti Putu Djlantik and the Resident of Bali and Lombok, L.J.J. Caron. It was named after two Dutch scholars: Frederik Albert Liefrinck, who worked in Lombok and Bali between 1881 and 1910 mainly as a specialist in Adat Law, and Hendrik Neubronner van der Tuuk, who was appointed to compile a Kawi-Balinese-Dutch Dictionary between 1870 and 1894. The term ‘’Kirtya’’, based on the Sanskrit ‘kirti’’ meaning meritorious action, was chosen as translation of the word ”Foundation”. It was established on June 2 1928. The first buildings, surrounded by a wall and gateway made of stone, were in fact on the premises of the palace of I G P Djlantik. The two reliefs on either side of the gate, a man with a bow riding an elephant, and a man struck by an arrow, represent the ‘hidden’ date 1850 – man, elephant, arrow, death - of the Balinese Saka calendar, corresponding with the year 1928 of the Western calendar.

The primary aim of the new foundation was the preservation of texts written on lontar palm leaves. From the beginning of 1929 onwards, lontar manuscripts were copied on newly made leaves under the auspices of I G P Djlantik. The first librarian was I Njoman Kadjeng and there were four typists (Mededeelingen Kirtya 1, October 1929). In 1935, I Poetoe Gria dealt with the card system and I Wajan Bhadra, who also knew Malay and Dutch, was engaged in compiling the catalogue, which was handwritten. (Mededeelingen Kirtya 4, 1934). A retired medical doctor from East Lombok, Raden Soedjono, dealt with the collection’s Sasak manuscripts and the organization of the copyists from Lombok.

When C. Hooykaas began his task in the Kirtya in 1939, there were already 50,000 palm leaves (Hooykaas 1973: 36). According to the Register on the last day of 1938 the library contained 1548 manuscripts (Register K.7: 179). Hooykaas and his staff observed that only a limited group of people in Bali and in the Western world were able to read Balinese script. Therefore he decided to begin a new project: the making of typewritten copies in Latin script of the lontar manuscripts in Singaraja. Extra carbon copies on four colours of paper were made for the Libraries of the University in Leiden, the Batavian Museum (now Museum Nasional in Jakarta), the Java Institute in Yogyakarta and for himself. Sixteen typists worked for him. The copying was interrupted during the Pacific War in 1942, but continued after the war till his departure to London in 1950 (Hooykaas 1973: 36). In 1970, after his retirement, he returned to Bali for a while and began a new transliteration project, the Balinese Manuscript Project (BMP) also named the Proyek Tik. His main informants and co-workers were, in South Bali, I Gusti Ngurah Ketut Sangka from Puri Gede in Kerambitan (Tabanan), and in North Bali I Ketut Suwidja, then head of the Kirtya in Singaraja. (The name of the library was meanwhile shortened to Gedong Kirtya or Kirtya). New lontar manuscripts from private owners and collectors were copied and spread around the world. Free copies were made for the Kirtya, Hooykaas himself, and for the archive in Kerambitan. Other copies were sold to subscribers: the University Library and the Royal Institute of Linguistics in Leiden, the Library of the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, the Library of the Preussische Kultursammlung in Berlin, and the Library of the University in Sydney. The numerous Balinese typists received an honorarium per typewritten page and the owner of the manuscript a free copy and a fee for lending. Hooykaas himself had made a list with titles of texts that were allowed and not allowed to be copied, the so-called ‘daftar sampunang’. One of his criteria for not copying was whether there already existed a critical edition of a text in print. He also made specifications about the manner in which the texts should be typed, the number of lines per page, and so on. The rules of spelling that had to be applied were those for modern Balinese. The disadvantage of this was that long vowels, aspirates and cerebrals were not registered, so that texts in Old Javanese could not be rendered appropriately. The typists were recruited from various regencies of Bali, in such a way as to guarantee a wide network of private owners from which the lontars could be borrowed. These typists were mostly elderly Balinese, who had a considerable knowledge of literature and a good command of Balinese and Old Javanese, since the majority of texts in Bali are written in this language. The fees received by the typists were a welcome supplement to their salaries or pensions and were used to give their children the opportunity to study at good secondary schools and universities in Denpasar or Java. When Prof. Hooykaas died in a traffic accident in The Hague in August 1979, 2796 texts had already been transliterated. After his death, his ‘pupil’ Dr. Hedi Hinzler decided to continue the work with some adaptations. The spelling was altered, and the list of ‘forbidden texts’ was revised. Students engaged in MA or Ph.D research could order copies of texts they needed. Many historical and genealogical texts and Village Regulations, Awig Desa, and also texts on music with musical notation were added. In many cases the original manuscripts were photocopied. When I Gusti Ngurah Ketut Sangka died in the beginning of 1991, Ida I Dewa Gde Catra from Amlapura (Karangasem) continued the organization and administration of the project. Since 1998 computers instead of typewriters are used. Thanks to the efforts of I Made Suatjana from Denpasar, we now have the proper letter fonts for accurately rendering Old Javanese in Latin script and even Balinese in Balinese script.

In the course of the years, as a result of recessions and lack of interest in Indonesian languages, the libraries abroad stopped their subscriptions, but the project is still running because now there are private subscribers. In February 2009 transliteration No. 7666 was sent to me. In the last few years, workshops have been held in Amlapura at Ida I Dewa Gde Catra’s, focusing on a particular literary text or corpus of texts, such as the literary poetic work of Cokorda Mantuk di Rana from Badung (2006), or the Old Javanese Dharma Patanjala, based on a manuscript from Berlin (2007). In 2009, a workshop on the literature about Nusa Penida will be held. The participants are Balinese or European PhD students, and Balinese literature specialists from Bali and elsewhere.

H.I.R. Hinzler, Leiden, March 2009

Bibliography:
Hinzler, H.I.R., The Balinese Manuscript Project, Southeast Asia Library Group Newsletter, No. 25, January 1983: 7-
Hooykaas, C., La Conservation des Manuscrits et de la Parole Parlee en Indonesie, Archipel 6, 1973: 33-41.
Mededeelingen Kirtya Liefrinck-Van der Tuuk, No. 1, 1929: 6-21.
Mededeelingen Kirtya Liefrinck-Van der Tuuk, No. 4, 1934: I, VII, VIII.