The world of lontar will likely continue side by side with the new technologies of our digital age Palm-leaf manuscripts (popularly known as lontar) are among the most iconic and unique manifestations of tangible and intangible cultural heritage preserved on Bali from the past through to the present day The literature and religious lore of Balinese and ancient Javanese traditions have been reproduced through the centuries via a learned tradition of writing and reading texts on lontar The refined technique of engraving words in the beautiful Balinese script on processed palm-leaves originates from pre-modern India this pre-industrial technology has mostly fallen into oblivion but on Bali it is still used alongside digital print technology lontar have been handled by the Brahmanical or aristocratic elites The largest collections of such manuscripts have been found in Brahmanical compounds and royal palaces especially in the northern and eastern provinces there may be tens of thousands of them in Bali alone they easily crumble under the attack of insects While many of the lontar kept in private households lie in a dilapidated state most are kept (and worshipped) as sacred heirlooms inherited from the ancestors and/or copied) as ‘books’ by the people in the business – that is by the very few Balinese who can read high Balinese the reader must also be able to understand the Indic-derived Balinese script The body of texts preserved on lontar encompasses various genres: works of literature; historical chronicles; treatises on medicine architecture and theatre; scriptures on matters of Hinduism and Buddhism; and manuals on ritual In their attempt to collect and preserve lontar and to make the texts written on them accessible to scholars and the Balinese community at large Dutch colonial authorities (in collaboration with local intellectuals) established the Gedong Kirtya library in Singaraja in the late 1920s the Dutch philologist Christiaan Hooykaas and the Balinese man of letters I Gusti Ngurah Ketut Sangka started a project involving the systematic typing of these texts onto paper in romanised transcription After a halt due to the Japanese invasion during WWII and other vicissitudes the so-called ‘Proyek Tik’ (Typing Project) was resumed by those two scholars in 1972 under the leadership of Hedi Hinzler and I Dewa Gede Catra from the 1980s until the first decade of the twenty-first century The many thousands of typewritten copies of texts resulting from this relentless work can now be accessed in Bali in the Leiden University library in the Netherlands and in a few other institutions in Australia several public repositories of lontar and/or romanised copies have been established in Denpasar under the patronage of local government or institutions of higher learning Substantial collections of lontar are held in the libraries of Udayana University in the Pusat Dokumentasi Budaya Bali (Centre for Documentation of Balinese Culture) and in the Balai Bahasa (Centre for Language) In spite of these admirable efforts in preservation knowledge of the languages (and even the script) of the body of texts the Balinese have inherited from the past remained the preserve of a restricted pool of people The endeavour to make traditional literature accessible to the masses goes back to the 1930–40s and textbooks started to circulate among commoners Balinese bookshops have been flooded with books on Hinduism usually written in modern Malay/Indonesian or Balinese were primarily aimed at edifying the majority of Balinese in matters of Hindu doctrine This trend has endured to the present day: especially in the last two decades These publications include Indonesian translations of Sanskrit ‘canonical’ Hindu scriptures such as the Bhagavad Gita the Vedas and the Puranas; editions and translations of ancient Old Javanese scriptures; and booklets on ritual matters as well as wider socio-religious issues relevant to the Balinese community these popular and accessible publications have not entirely replaced lontar which perhaps have remained the media par excellence for the preservation of religious lore The movement of the texts is not only from lontar into writing: it is not uncommon for printed books pamphlets or typewritten romanisations to be turned into lontar A recent example is a copy of the Old Javanese Hindu text Dharma Pātañjala Having survived in a single (circa fifteenth-century) palm-leaf manuscript of West Javanese provenance Ida Dewa Gede Catra transcribed it into Balinese script on a lontar in 2007 Because of its importance for the Balinese Hindu religion this lontar is now part of the Gedong Kirtya collection the activity of writing on lontar is still carried out for personal or communal edification (through ‘reading clubs’) and – perhaps most importantly – to ensure the ‘survival’ of Balinese culture which locals perceive to be under threat from westernisation and modernisation intellectuals and religious leaders have promoted the revival of traditional forms of artistic Many of the texts that were traditionally handed down on lontar and circulated within a restricted circle of literati are now read or discussed in public contests (such as the Utsawa Dharma Gita on TV and in radio broadcasts (such as Kidung Interaktif The advent of digital technology has triggered an efflorescence of blogs and websites by private individuals and organisations where the texts are reproduced digitally in roman script A set of unicode-compliant fonts has been developed to facilitate the typing of Balinese script on personal computers Most of the items in the lontar collection of the Centre for Documentation of Balinese Culture in Denpasar have been digitally photographed and uploaded in the form of the ‘Balinese Digital Library’ on the popular website archive.org high-quality images of nearly 3000 lontar can now be freely accessed and downloaded from the internet One may see these recent developments as a direct continuation of the anti-reactionary agenda of westernised Balinese urban intellectuals who struggled against the Brahmanical elites to ‘desacralise’ and ‘democratise’ the production and sharing of knowledge on Bali – activities involving lontar that were traditionally carried out by high-status people their contemporary heirs see lontar not just as powerful magical objects but as media for the storage of texts which can later be reproduced and read in different formats and on different platforms ¬– for example or as text and image files that can be accessed on computers they believe that the esoteric teachings that have been the preserve of religious authorities and ritual specialists (such as the priests known as pedanda and pemangku) constitute a body of knowledge that is relevant to the religious and moral edification of modern man it is a matter of some urgency that they be freely shared among the members of the community and the world at large especially at a time when the Balinese are striving to preserve their minoritarian religious and cultural identities in rapidly-developing and predominantly Islamic Indonesia Will recent paradigm shifts in the Balinese cultural and media scenes supplant lontar as a medium to share and produce knowledge It is more likely that the world of lontar will continue to exist side by side with the new technologies of our digital age Teams of engineers are currently working on perfecting the technique of writing on lontar leaves with a laser pen instead of engraving them with a metallic stylus which could dramatically speed up the writing process along with the renewed interest in traditional lore that has developed among the younger generations in recent years will ensure that lontar continue to play an important part in the dynamic dance between ‘tradition’ and ‘modernity’ that has made Balinese culture so unique the artifacts themselves will not outlast the traditional know-how about the languages and lontar will not become mute witnesses to the rich Javano-Balinese cultural past Andrea Acri (a.acri81@gmail.com) is visiting research fellow at the Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (Singapore) Receive Inside Indonesia's latest articles and quarterly editions in your inbox © Copyright Indonesian Resources and Information Program (IRIP) 1983 - 2025 We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the stolen lands on which Inside Indonesia is based and we pay our respects to Elders past and present We recognise that sovereignty was never ceded Be aware that there are scammers active on WA pretending to be Indonesia Investments Indonesia Investments Report - March 2025 Edition Jakarta Composite Index (6,766.79)  +17.72  +0.26% GDP Growth Q4-2024 5.02% (y/y) Inflation March 2025 +1.03% (y/y) Central Bank BI Rate April 2025 5.75% who passed away on 10 January 2016 after a battle with liver cancer wanted to be cremated - and his ashed scattered - on the Indonesian island of Bali American media reported that the rock star wrote in his will that he be cremated according to a Buddhist ritual (although Bali is better known for its Hinduism-inspired rituals) If it would be impossible to be cremated on Bali then he would still want his ashes to be scattered on the island Bowie was cremated in New Jersey (USA) on 12 January who was born David Robert Jones in London in 1947 left a 20-page will that divided his estate (worth an estimated USD $100 million) between his wife Iman Abdulmajid Jones Bowie also stated in his will that he wanted his body shipped to Bali and cremated in accordance with Buddhist rituals of Bali if cremation on Bali would not be possible Bowie still wanted his ashes to be scattered on the Indonesian island Whether this wish has been fulfilled - or is to be fulfilled soon - remains unknown and Under Pressure (together with British rock band Queen) became fascinated with Bali after taking a holiday in Indonesia (including Bali) in the early 1980s he made Indonesian versions of two songs: Amlapura and Don't Let Me Down & Down Later Bowie developed a villa - fully equipped with traditional Balinese and Javanese architecture - on the exclusive Caribbean island of Mustique • Balinese Hinduism Please sign in or subscribe to comment on this column BALIPOST.com — The length of Beach in Karangasem reaches 85.22 kilometers about 39 kilometers have experienced abrasion A half of that number has been handled properly.Management Section Head of River Beach and Groundwater at the Karangasem Public Works revealed that the length of the beach reaching 85.22 kilometers spread across four sub-districts namely the Kubu He said the abrasion happened due to rising seawater making the shoreline eroded This was triggered by reclamation in several regions the existence of reclamation is also an influence of coastal erosion,” he said recently Junaedi added that the handling of coastal abrasion belongs to the authority of provincial government and the Bali-Penida River Agency He explained the handling of abrasion is still adjusted to the budget owned there is a 1-km long coastal abrasion but can only be handled along 200 meters The handling of remaining abrasion will be carried out at the next stage the abrasion will be focused on graveyards and temples the abrasion handling was focused on graveyard “The handling cannot be done at once but in some stages because it is adjusted to the budget they have,” he explained He explained that for the handling of abrasion on Purwa Kerti Beach his agency helped facilitate the making of recommendations to provincial government regarding the development The proposed budget is large enough to reach more than IDR 5 billion “We have submitted the proposal to provincial government last September Later the province will be budgeting because the budget in the province is quite large If the budget in the province is inadequate the province will further submit this proposal to central government,” he explained He explained that in handling abrasion he had to use armor stone It is also adapted to the severity of the ocean waves for the southern coast usually reaches two tons of armor the handling of coastal abrasion will coordinate with the provinces related to abraded beaches having been handled and have not been handled CAPCHA *  +  3  =  12 .hide-if-no-js{display:none!important} Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker This property in Western Australia’s south-west was literally designed for a princess The decadent poolside patio at 39 St Alouarn Place the great-granddaughter of the last ruling King of Bali the extravagant manor is their Balinese-inspired summer home Set high on more than two hectares in one of Margaret River’s most exclusive locations, the four-bedroom, four-bathroom Margaret River home blends modern architecture with Balinese design themes the grand property showcases generous spaces and unique fittings including mother-of-pearl teak doors American oak floors and fossilised slate from the Tiananmen region of China The magnificent interior features soaring ceilings and fossilised slate from the Tiananmen region of China who has lived in Bali for more than 35 years says he fell in love with Margaret River when he first visited in 1997 because it reminded him of North California’s Sonoma and Napa regions “Margaret River was virtually untouched and I fell in love immediately,” he says he was recommended property in the Wallcliffe Farms precinct The Balinese-inspired gardens are woven through the two hectare estate and boast spiritual scultpures “The inspiration was to recreate a summer palace home similar to our home in Puri Agung Amlapura…and the water palaces of our family in Ujung and Tirta Gangga which are open to visitors every day,” Burman says “I have taken great pride in restoring and living in the palace at Puri Agung for more than 30 years “I love that I have created a small replica of one of our water palaces in Australia.” There is a Balinese courtyard with a large Buddha sculpture a 26m infinity pool and a separate studio for visiting guests Burman says the property has been leased to high-profile celebrities as holiday accommodation including model Nicole Trunfio and her musician husband Gary Clark Jnr The inviting infinity pool overlooks the ocean from all angles He says he has enjoyed “living in the most luxurious hidden spot overlooking the ocean from everywhere” as well as the amazing sunsets and incomparable privacy “This has been my primary residence the past few years and I have decided to sell as I will be moving back to the United States where my daughter is living working as a lawyer in New York City,” he says The property is listed for sale by Paul Manners of Space Realty for $3.75 million third parties have written and supplied the content and we are not responsible for it completeness or reliability of the information nor do we accept any liability or responsibility arising in any way from 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