Poetry engraved on palm leaves was the way some Indonesians retain links with their cultural past, according to a University of Queensland academic.
Asian Languages and Studies lecturer Dr Helen Creese recently finished translating an 18th century Balinese palm-leaf poem from Kawi (Old Javanese) into English to be published next month in a book entitled Parthayana - The Journeying of Partha: An Eighteenth Century Balinese Kakwin (KITLV Press).
She said Balinese poems had been written on lontar Palm leaves since at least the 9th and 10th centuries in Bali and Java and were a way the local people could retain and connect with the original Indian and Hindu traditions. Most Indonesians were now Muslims but Bali had remained Hindu, she said.
Originally commissioned by local kings, the poems, were part of their sacred regalia, stored in royal libraries and re-copied every 100 years or so when the palm leaves deteriorated, she said.
'The poems often contained messages on how people should conduct themselves and were designed to be sung at huge public performances. This is how they became part of local folklore,' she said.
While most were fictional, detailing the adventures of a kind of ancient action hero, it was thought some were loosely biographical royal stories.
Only around 20 poems had survived from Java before the 15th century including two derived from Indian epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata However, more than 130 had survived from Bali from the 17th century onwards, she said.
'The poems are not rhymed but are metered with long and short syllables to allow for their singing. They remain an important part of Balinese creative and intellectual activity and are still written today with Balinese Radio broadcasting the singing and interpretation of these poems daily,' Dr Creese said.
Every 210 days (a year in Bali) the people celebrate the Hindu goddess of learning, Saraswati, by worshipping instruments of learning such as books, computers and the palm-leaf poems. 'People will bring out these palm-leaf poetry books from their storage place in the rafters of the home,' she said.
The poem Dr Creese has translated chronicles the adventures of the fictional hero Partha after his exile from his family for 12 years.
'During this time, he encounters many beautiful women including a snake Princess, fights battles and abducts a bride,' Dr Creese said.
She said the poem paralleled the actual pilgrimage of the King of Klungkung who ascended the Balinese throne in 1720. The poem may have been written to commemorate his reign.
'The poems tell us what the times were like. An important source of information is the scribal notes included by the people copying older texts. This was a prized occupation as copying them was thought to bring great religious merit,' she said.
'One I discovered was by a woman who said she was copying the poem so that her son dying of smallpox could have easier access to heaven.'
She said her next book would examine the way women were portrayed in the poems including details of daily life, courtship and marriage ceremonies.
Indonesian language and background studies were first offered at the University of Queensland in 1996 with 300 undergraduate and postgraduate students currently enrolled.
For more information, contact Dr Creese (telephone 07 3365 6413).
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