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Books saved from a burning palace
The fall of Lombok
The Dutch colonial government had stepped in to depose King Anak Agung Ketut Karangasem of Lombok, a renowned collector of ancient texts. After a war in which the local people resisted fiercely, Dutch marines stormed his palace on the 19th of November 1894. About 2,000 people were massacred, and the king was captured and died in a colonial prison a few months later.
Artillery set the palace on fire, and the troops carried off the treasury: more than 130 kg of gold, 3,000 of silver, and countless works of art. It became known as the Lombok treasure.
The saved manuscripts
Among the troops was Jan Laurens Andries Brandes, a Dutchman who was an expert in Sanskrit and Old Javanese and had heard that the king collected rare manuscripts. While others ran with gold heaped in their arms, he gathered all the ancient books he could carry and fled before the roof collapsed. Much of the collection burned. What he saved went in a box to the colonial capital.
Inside was the only existing copy of the Desawarnana, written about 500 years earlier by a scribe named Prapanca. He wrote it because he felt unable to compose the heroic epics about Hindu gods that the senior court poets produced, so he set down the places the king's royal journey passed through, in order. It is now one of the most famous pieces of Javanese literature, and a snapshot of life under King Hayam Wuruk.
Why did the Dutch conquer Lombok in 1894?
Lombok was ruled by a Balinese dynasty from the house of Karangasem, while most of its people were Sasak. Tensions between the two groups grew until the Sasak rose up against their rulers. The Dutch colonial government sent an expedition to the island that year. Lombok was then brought under direct Dutch rule as part of the Dutch East Indies.
How do palm-leaf manuscripts last in tropical heat?
Many old Javanese and Balinese texts were written on lontar, strips cut from palm leaves. Scribes scratched letters into the leaf with a small knife, then rubbed soot mixed with oil into the grooves to make them visible. Humidity and insects destroy such leaves in a few generations. Scribes kept texts alive by copying them onto fresh leaves again and again.
Why is the Desawarnana so important?
The poem is also known as the Nagarakretagama and was completed in 1365. It describes Hayam Wuruk's tour of East Java in 1359 and lists the lands that paid homage to Majapahit. Historians use that list as the main written evidence for how far the empire's influence reached. It is written in Old Javanese verse in 98 cantos.
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