LONTAR MANUSCRIPT Editorial Photo

Students on intern are cleaning ancient Javanese manuscript dated to 17th century, at Reksa Pustaka Library, Royal Mangkunegaran Palace, Java, Indonesia. In Indonesia the palm-leaf manuscript is called lontar. The Indonesian word is the modern form of Old Javanese rontal. It is composed of two Old Javanese words, namely ron leaf and tal Borassus flabellifer, palmyra palm. Many old manuscripts dated from ancient Java, Indonesia, were written on rontal palm-leaf manuscript. Manuscripts dated from 14th to 15th century Majapahit period, or even earlier, such as the Arjunawiwaha, the Smaradahana, the Nagarakretagama and the Kakawin Sutasoma, were discovered on the neighboring islands of Bali and Lombok. This suggested that the tradition of preserving, copying and rewriting palm-leaf manuscripts continued for centuries. Other palm-leaf manuscripts include Sundanese language works: the Carita Parahyangan, the Sanghyang siksakanda ng karesian and the Bujangga Manik.