S. Koolhof the "La Galigo"; a Bugis Encyclopedia and Its Growth In
S. Koolhof The "La Galigo"; A Bugis encyclopedia and its growth In: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, Encompassing knowledgeIndigenous encyclopedias from ninth-century Java to twentieth-century Riau 155 (1999), no: 3, Leiden, 362- 387 This PDF-file was downloaded from http://www.kitlv-journals.nl Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 05:20:38PM via free access SIRTJO KOOLHOF The 'La Galigo' A Bugis Encyclopedia and its Growth The Bugis, who form the majority of inhabitants of the southwestern penin- sula of Sulawesi, are the proud possessors of an extensive corpus of literature of a multifarious nature laid down in thousands of manuscripts. History, belles-lettres; mythology, technical explications, magical formulae, medical treatises, epic poetry, and instructions about good behavior are only a few of the subjects to be found in them. Almost all are paper manuscripts; less than ten manuscripts written on prepared leaves of the lontar palm (Borassus fla- bellifer L.) are known to be extant today. Important collections of South Sulawesi manuscripts are kept in Ujungpandang, Leiden and Jakarta. Recently a project funded by the Ford Foundation and headed by Dr Mukhlis from the Arsip Nasional in Ujungpandang, has'managed to retrieve more than 3,000 manuscripts from all over the province, approximately 1,800 of them Bugis, which were all put on microfilm. Many thousands more, how- ever, must still be in private hands, their existence, and contents, unknown to the outside world, and sometimes even to their owners. The manuscripts written in the indigenous script, both those on paper and the few on lontar leaves, are commonly known as lontaraq, a word derived from the Javanese 'lontar'.
[Show full text]