Metadata and Balinese Palm Leaf Manuscripts: Digitization Projects and Online Repositories
Paper by Andrea Acri
Given at the International Workshop on Metadata Standards for Palm Leaf Manuscripts on July 9, 2021
Excerpt: The small island of Bali is just next to the island of Java in what is now the archipelagic state of Indonesia. It’s a small territory but with a very rich tradition of manuscripts and it was part once of the pre-modern world – of the so-called Indic world Sanskrit cosmopolis. It was deeply influenced by Indian culture Sanskrit language, and so it has its own tradition of manuscripts. Basically, both Java and Bali share the same tradition of India, South Asia, Nepal, etc, with their own local peculiarities of tradition – basically, that was exported in the early medieval period. We have basically several hundreds, if not thousands of texts. Of course very little survived because of the climate, so we had much less than what was available in the past. Written in several languages all Java – modern Javanese, Balinese and other regional languages in the period from the 7th to the 16th century. These palm leaf manuscripts are usually kept in collections both private or also state-sponsored collections that is libraries or museums.
Metadata and Balinese Palm Leaf Manuscripts: Digitization Projects and Online Repositories
Paper by Andrea Acri
Given at the International Workshop on Metadata Standards for Palm Leaf Manuscripts on July 9, 2021
Excerpt: The small island of Bali is just next to the island of Java in what is now the archipelagic state of Indonesia. It’s a small territory but with a very rich tradition of manuscripts and it was part once of the pre-modern world – of the so-called Indic world Sanskrit cosmopolis. It was deeply influenced by Indian culture Sanskrit language, and so it has its own tradition of manuscripts. Basically, both Java and Bali share the same tradition of India, South Asia, Nepal, etc, with their own local peculiarities of tradition – basically, that was exported in the early medieval period. We have basically several hundreds, if not thousands of texts. Of course very little survived because of the climate, so we had much less than what was available in the past. Written in several languages all Java – modern Javanese, Balinese and other regional languages in the period from the 7th to the 16th century. These palm leaf manuscripts are usually kept in collections both private or also state-sponsored collections that is libraries or museums.
Andrea Acri is a Faculty member at Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes. Click here to view his Academia.edu page.
See also Retrieving heritage: rare old Javanese and old Sundanese manuscripts from West Java
The International Workshop on Metadata Standards for Palm Leaf Manuscripts was held on July 8-9, 2021. Click here to watch more papers from the workshop or visit the Palm Leaf Library & Research Centre website for more details.
Top Image: Palm leaf manuscript from Bali. Photo by Tropenmuseum, part of the National Museum of World Cultures / Wikimedia Commons
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