RAAP—040
LONTAR MANUSCRIPTS
Lontar, palm-leaf manuscripts fashioned from treated palmyra leaves, constitute the principal archival medium of Balinese intellectual history. Compiled by pangawi (authors) and panedun (scribes), they transmit religious law, healing practices, cosmology, genealogy, epic literature, and quotidian records, functioning simultaneously as scripture, handbook, and personal notebook. Texts are grouped into canonical classes: Weda (theology), Agama (law and ethics), Usada (medicine), Wariga (astronomy), Itihasa (epic), Babad (history), Lelampahan (performing arts), Tantri (didactic tales), and Prasi (illustrated narrative).
Production is exacting. Selected palmyra fronds are cured, boiled with herbal preservatives, dried, then polished over a cycle that can extend to two years, yielding termite-resistant folios known as pepesan. Script is incised with a brass stylus (pangrupak), the cuts later darkened with soot from burned candlenut. Writing is undertaken as ritual labor: offerings to Saraswati precede inscription, attesting to the leaf’s status as vessel of taksu, divine knowledge. Read publicly during the biannual Saraswati festival, lontar remain active instruments of cultural continuity, preserving Balinese thought against the erosions of time and globalization.
Production is exacting. Selected palmyra fronds are cured, boiled with herbal preservatives, dried, then polished over a cycle that can extend to two years, yielding termite-resistant folios known as pepesan. Script is incised with a brass stylus (pangrupak), the cuts later darkened with soot from burned candlenut. Writing is undertaken as ritual labor: offerings to Saraswati precede inscription, attesting to the leaf’s status as vessel of taksu, divine knowledge. Read publicly during the biannual Saraswati festival, lontar remain active instruments of cultural continuity, preserving Balinese thought against the erosions of time and globalization.