Ancient Books from Java and Bali

ANCIENT BOOKS FROM JAVA AND BALI

In the past people used to write on paper,  bronze,  walls  or stone.  Do you know how Indonesian people people wrote in the past ?  In the islands of Java and Bali they used to write on palm leaves.  They cut palm leaves into pieces of about 20 cm long.  They wrote with a small knife on both sides of palm leaves.  They made a small hole right in the middle of the leaves.  The palm leaves then tied together with a small rope.  Then its covered with small pieces of bamboo.   In Javanese language it is called lontar.

Javanese people used to write stories,  traditional  herbal medicine,  religion,  astronomy,  art,  traditional music,  martial art,  etc.  There are many stories like Indian epic of Mahabarata (the story of the Barata family) and Ramayana (the story of King Rama),  stories of the prophet Muhammad,  and stories of Javanese kings.  Javanese writers who  worked for the royal family used to write epic stories about their kings.  But there were also independent writers who wrote about religion,  art, herbal medicine etc.  There are also people who make copies of old collection to preserve them.

In the past royal family had huge collections of this kind of book.   Today in Indonesia several museums keep this kind of collection.  A large number of the book are also in the individual collection.    I have a collection of this book which I believe just a copy but it is also an old one.  I have no idea about the age.  In the photographs below I show you my collection.  It is about Ramayana or the story of King Rama.  It is an Indian epic which is still very popular today in Indonesia and even in the whole Southeast Asia.  In the next photograph I show you a panel taken from Borobudur temple in central Java.  It is a panel that shows teachers of prince Sidharta Gautama the prophet of Buddhism when they hold something that I believe were lontars (palm -leaves books).