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Sureq Galigo or La Galigo is a creation myth of the Luwu from South Sulawesi in modern-day Indonesia, written down in manuscript form between the 18th and 20th century in the Indonesian language Luwu, based on an earlier oral tradition.
It was adapted into I La Galigo , a music theater work by Robert Wilson. [1]
The poem is composed in pentameters and relates the story of humanity's origins but serves also as practical everyday almanac. [1] It evolved mostly through oral tradition and is still sung on important occasions. The earliest preserved written versions date back to the 18th century, earlier ones have been lost due to insects, climate or destruction. [1] Consequently, there is no complete or definite version of Galigo but the preserved parts amount to 6,000 pages or 300,000 lines of text, making it one of the largest works of literature. [2] The original Bugis language, in which also the production is sung, is now only understood by fewer than 100 people [2] but so far only parts of it have been translated into Indonesian and no complete English language version exists either. [1]
The majority of extant La Galigo manuscripts can be found in Indonesia and the Netherlands. Leiden University Libraries keeps one of the most valuable manuscripts. [3] The Leiden manuscript consists of twelve volumes and relates the first part of the long Buginese epic. This largest coherent La Galigo fragment in the world was written in Makassar at the request of the theologian and scholar Benjamin Frederik Matthes (1818–1908). [4] In 1847 Matthes entered the service of the Netherlands Bible Society to study Bugis and Makassarese with the purpose of translating the Bible into those languages.
The text was written by Colliq Pujié (Arung Pancana Toa), Queen Mother of Tanete, a small kingdom in South Sulawesi. The manuscript is now part of the collection Indonesian manuscripts of the Netherlands Bible Society, given on permanent loan to the Leiden University Libraries since the years 1905–1915. [5]
Together with another La Galigo manuscript, held in Makassar, the Leiden manuscript was included in 2012 in UNESCO's Memory of the World (MOW) Register as the second document from Indonesia after Negarakertagama in 2008 to earn the acknowledgement. [6] In 2017, the Leiden manuscript has been made digitally available. [7]
Other efforts have been made to present the culture to a wider audience. Just last weekend, a theatre production called Galigo: The Chaos Within - based on the Bugis creation epic I La Galigo, one of the longest pieces of literature in the world - was staged at the Drama Centre at the National Library Board (NLB) building, by Indonesian students and alumni of the National University of Singapore.
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