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Post by bjd on Jul 2, 2019 11:46:56 GMT
This is a "book" with wooden covers and palm leaf pages with an unknown script. My husband claims it is "brahmic" and mentioned the possibility of Malalayam. I thought of Rikita but couldn't send the image to her so am putting this out to a larger public.  |
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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 2, 2019 12:34:31 GMT
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Post by bjd on Jul 2, 2019 14:16:09 GMT
Your googling talents are great, Kerouac. I'll pass on the information.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 2, 2019 14:52:20 GMT
I saw that most of them come from Indonesia. Googling "palm leaf books" will give you an amazing quantity of images.
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Post by rikita on Jul 2, 2019 19:26:35 GMT
hm, looking first at it, i thought it looked like malayalam, but then comparing it to a malayalam alphabet, i am not so sure. not very familiar with handwriting, so i can't really say ...
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Post by bjd on Jul 3, 2019 5:28:07 GMT
Thank you both. My husband too started to compare with a malayalam alphabet but didn't find some of the letters. Now he thinks it might be sinhalese. Oh well -- it keeps him busy.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 3, 2019 6:01:14 GMT
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Post by questa on Jul 3, 2019 7:13:27 GMT
I have seen many in different places and have one on the wall facing me now. The script looks like the old Kawi script which is based on Sanskrit and is still used today in matters of religous or legal-to-the-Balinese documents.
The palm leaves are from the Lontar Palm as it is bug repellent. Usually the wooden covers are coconut wood or teak. The Covers may have script burnt on, but usually the words are engraved on the palm pages with a fine sharp tool, then a mixture of coconut oil and soot is rubbed in with the fingers.
When the scribe is happy with the page, he polishes it with the oil. The thread that holds them together used to be silk but now mostly cotton. The Chinese coins are used everywhere in Indonesia as a sort of symbol that includes "my intentions are pure" "Let there be trust between us" "We wish each other wealth and long life". Some of the pages feature drawings.
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Only those of the Bramana (Brahman) caste write the sacred lontar. They are the rather remote high caste who study and keep alive the ancient traditions and speak a Kawi language.They also are in charge of the libraries. When not in use each book is wrapped in a silk cloth folded into traditional patterns.
There are rules about all books and writing in Bali...Don't put written material on the ground, floor, seat of a chair,on a statue, on your feet or in your lap.
If someone could talk me through it I could post some pics of my Lontar.It is written in Kawi and English with illustrations. Can I email pics to someone here who can add them? Just doesn't work for me.
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Post by bjd on Jul 3, 2019 7:55:47 GMT
Thanks for the info both of you. I will send you my email address, questa, and you can send me a picture.
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Post by bjd on Jul 3, 2019 14:58:21 GMT
After much staring at a screen, my husband thinks it's an old version of Sinhalese.
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Post by questa on Jul 4, 2019 6:42:12 GMT
Having compared the 2 scripts, I think your husband has nailed it with Sinhalese. It is much more circular and the colours look like they were scorched rather than engraved and blackened. I have heard it said that Burmese script looks like "a row of bubbles making love"  |
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jul 4, 2019 7:00:18 GMT
This is fascinating, I'd never heard of them...Antiques Roadshow eat your heart out  |
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Post by questa on Jul 4, 2019 12:43:10 GMT
When I had the restaurant in Bali I spent 4 months a year there for several years. I lived in a household of older traditional university teachers...an artist, an architect, a language teacher and a historian.The wives were among the group that knew all the cultural nuances of the ceremonies, dancing, chanting, dress, customs etc.
I was always full of questions and they enjoyed teaching me. I had a reasonable knowledge of Hinduism which linked in with Balinese culture of earth and water = rice and life. I was invited to join the local people for Temple ceremonies and taught what is polite to do in various situations.
The cafe was not busy mid-mornings and this is where my tutors would come. Free coffee (grew and processed it ourselves) and tales of spirits and magic, history and politics, do-s and don'ts of living Balinese and Indonesian language.
So if I wander off in a maze of Bali musings, forgive me, it is because my mind is there and my keyboard is here.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 4, 2019 13:27:52 GMT
Feel free to keep going. You are enlightening all of us.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jul 4, 2019 16:54:26 GMT
Ditto....do you have stories about your time in Bali?
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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 4, 2019 17:59:27 GMT
Maybe we will find something on the Ports of Call branch sooner or later. I've been considering adding some new material myself.
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Post by bjd on Jul 9, 2019 15:09:29 GMT
An update: my husband posted this on a Sinhalese forum and somebody answered that it is a medical treatise, written in old-fashioned Sinhalese, in verse.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 9, 2019 15:44:27 GMT
That just gave me a vision of the fairy godmother in Cinderella singing the song that turned the pumpkin into a carriage.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 9, 2019 17:21:26 GMT
So if I wander off in a maze of Bali musings, forgive me, it is because my mind is there and my keyboard is here. What a lovely way to put that! Feel free to keep going. You are enlightening all of us. Ditto! Ditto....do you have stories about your time in Bali? Ditto! |
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