Sureq Galigo

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La Galigo Buginese epic written in the Lontara script. La galigo.jpg
La Galigo Buginese epic written in the Lontara script.

Sureq Galigo or La Galigo is an epic creation myth of the Bugis from South Sulawesi, written down in manuscript form between the 18th and 20th century in the Indonesian language Bugis, based on an earlier oral tradition. It has become known to a wider audience mostly through the theatrical adaptation I La Galigo by Robert Wilson. [1]

Creation myth Symbolic narrative of how the world began and how people first came to inhabit it

A creation myth is a symbolic narrative of how the world began and how people first came to inhabit it. While in popular usage the term myth often refers to false or fanciful stories, members of cultures often ascribe varying degrees of truth to their creation myths. In the society in which it is told, a creation myth is usually regarded as conveying profound truths, metaphorically, symbolically and sometimes in a historical or literal sense. They are commonly, although not always, considered cosmogonical myths—that is, they describe the ordering of the cosmos from a state of chaos or amorphousness.

South Sulawesi Province in Indonesia

South Sulawesi is a province in the southern peninsula of Sulawesi. The Selayar Islands archipelago to the south of Sulawesi is also part of the province. The capital is Makassar. The province is bordered by Central Sulawesi and West Sulawesi to the north, the Gulf of Bone and Southeast Sulawesi to the east, Makassar Strait to the west, and Flores Sea to the south.

Languages of Indonesia languages of a geographic region

More than 700 living languages are spoken in Indonesia. A major part of them belong to the Austronesian language family, while over 270 Papuan (non-Austronesian) languages are spoken in eastern Indonesia. The official language is Indonesian, a standardised form of Malay, which serves as the lingua franca of the archipelago. The vocabulary of Indonesian borrows heavily from regional languages of Indonesia, such as Javanese, Sundanese and Minangkabau, as well as from Dutch, Sanskrit and Arabic.

Contents

Description

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 La Galigo manuscripts still existent can be found in Indonesia and the Netherlands. Leiden University Library keeps one of the most valuable manuscripts. 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 B.F. Matthes (1818–1908). 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.

Pentameter is a poetic meter. А poem is said to be written in a particular pentameter when the lines of the poem have the length of five feet, where a 'foot' is a combination of a particular number of unstressed syllables and a stressed syllable. Depending on the pattern of feet, pentameter can be iambic or dactylic.

An almanac is an annual publication listing a set of events forthcoming in the next year. It includes information like weather forecasts, farmers' planting dates, tide tables, and other tabular data often arranged according to the calendar. Celestial figures and various statistics are found in almanacs, such as the rising and setting times of the Sun and Moon, dates of eclipses, hours of high and low tides, and religious festivals. The set of events noted in an almanac may be tailored for a specific group of readers, such as farmers, sailors, or astronomers.

Oral tradition form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and cultural material is received, preserved and transmitted orally from one generation to another

Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and cultural material is received, preserved and transmitted orally from one generation to another. The transmission is through speech or song and may include folktales, ballads, chants, prose or verses. In this way, it is possible for a society to transmit oral history, oral literature, oral law and other knowledge across generations without a writing system, or in parallel to a writing system. Religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism, for example, have used an oral tradition, in parallel to a writing system, to transmit their canonical scriptures, secular knowledge such as Sushruta Samhita, hymns and mythologies from one generation to the next.

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 Library since the years 1905-1915. In 2012, together with another La Galigo manuscript, held in Makassar, the Leiden manuscript is now included in UNESCO's Memory of the World (MOW) Register as the second document from Indonesia after Negarakertagama in 2008 to earn the acknowledgement. [3] In 2017, the Leiden manuscript has been made digitally available. [4]

Leiden University Library library

Leiden University Library is a library founded in 1575 in Leiden, Netherlands. It is regarded as a significant place in the development of European culture: it is a part of a small number of cultural centres that gave direction to the development and spread of knowledge during the Enlightenment. This was due particularly to the simultaneous presence of a unique collection of exceptional sources and scholars. Holdings include approximately 5,200,000 volumes, 1,000,000 e-books, 70,000 e-journals, 2,000 current paper journals, 60,000 Oriental and Western manuscripts, 500,000 letters, 100,000 maps, 100,000 prints, 12,000 drawings and 300,000 photographs. The library manages the largest collections worldwide on Indonesia and the Caribbean. Furthermore, Leiden University Library is the only heritage organization in The Netherlands with three registrations of documents in UNESCO's Memory of the World Register.

<i>Nagarakretagama</i> Old Javanese eulogy

The Nagarakretagama or Nagarakrtagama, also known as Desawarñana or Deshavarñana, is an Old Javanese eulogy to Hayam Wuruk, a Javanese king of the Majapahit Empire. It was written on lontar as a kakawin by Mpu Prapanca in 1365. The Nagarakretagama contains detailed descriptions of the Majapahit Empire during its greatest extent. The poem affirms the importance of Hindu–Buddhism in the Majapahit empire by describing temples and palaces and several ceremonial observances.

Adaptation

I La Galigo is music-theater work by Robert Wilson that has been shown since 2004 in Asia, Europe, Australia and the United States. It is based on an adaption by Rhoda Grauer of the epic creation myth Sureq Galigo of the Bugis from South Sulawesi, written between the 13th and 15th century in the Indonesian language Buginese.

Related Research Articles

Sulawesi island of Indonesia

Sulawesi, formerly known as Celebes, is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago. Within Indonesia, only Sumatra, Borneo and Papua are larger in territory, and only Java and Sumatra have larger populations.

Buginese or Bugis is a language spoken by about five million people mainly in the southern part of Sulawesi, Indonesia.

Makassarese, sometimes spelled Makasar, Makassar, or Macassar, is a language of the Makassarese people, spoken in South Sulawesi province of Indonesia. It is a member of the South Sulawesi group of the Austronesian language family, and thus closely related to, among others, Buginese.

Lontara script script traditionally used for the Bugis, Makassarese, and Mandar languages of Sulawesi in Indonesia

The Lontara script is a Brahmic script traditionally used for the Bugis, Makassarese and Mandar languages of Sulawesi in Indonesia. It is also known as the Bugis script, as Lontara documents written in this language are the most numerous.

Luwu former kingdom

The Kingdom of Luwu is generally thought to be the oldest kingdom in South Sulawesi. In 1889, the Dutch Governor of Makassar placed Luwu's heyday between the 10th and 14th centuries, but offered no evidence. The La Galigo, an oral epic composed in a literary form of the Bugis language, is the likely inspiration of Braam Morris’ dating. The La Galigo depicts a vaguely defined world of coastal and riverine kingdoms whose economies are based on trade. Two important centers of this world are Luwu and the kingdom of Cina whose palace site lay in the western Cenrana valley, near the hamlet of Sarapao in Pamanna district. The incompatibility of the La Galigo's trade-based political economy with the agricultural economies of other South Sulawesi kingdoms has led scholars to posit an intervening period of chaos to separate the two societies chronologically.

Bima City in West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia

Bima is a city on the eastern coast of the island of Sumbawa in central Indonesia's province West Nusa Tenggara. It is the largest city on the island of Sumbawa, with a population of 142,443 at the 2010 Census, but the latest official estimate is 148,984. It is separate from the adjoining Regency of Bima which had a population of 407,636 at the 2010 Census.

Coppong Daeng Rannu is a master of Makassar ethnic-group dances. She is best known as Rice Goddess in performance I La Galigo.

Mandar is an Austronesian language spoken by the Mandar ethnic group living in West Sulawesi province of Indonesia, especially in the coastal regencies of Majene and Polewali Mandar, as well as in a few settlements in the islands of Pangkep District and Ujung Lero, a small peninsula near Pare-Pare).

Second Bone War

The Second Bone War was fought from 20 February 1859 until 20 January 1860 between the forces of the Dutch East Indies and the Kingdom of Bone.

Fort Rotterdam Dutch fort built in Makassar on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia

Fort Rotterdam is a 17th-century fort in Makassar on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. It is a Dutch fort built on top of an existing fort of the Gowa Kingdom. The first fort on the site was constructed by the a local sultan in around 1634, to counter Dutch encroachments. The site was ceded to the Dutch under the Treaty of Bongaya, and they completely rebuilt it between 1673 and 1679. It had six bastions and was surrounded by a seven meter high rampart and a two meter deep moat.

Luwu Regency Regency in South Sulawesi, Indonesia

Luwu Regency is a regency of South Sulawesi Province, Indonesia. The administrative capital lies at Belopa, since the former capital of Palopo became an independent municipality (city) in 2006, at which date Luwu Regency was split into Palopo city, North Luwu Regency, and East Luwu Regency, with the residue remaining as the new Luwu Regency. The first Regent of the reduced Luwu Regency was H. M. Basmin Mattayang from 2004-2009, then Ir. H. Andi Mudzakkar replaced him as Regent from 2009-2014 following the first direct election in Luwu. Luwu is well known for its natural resources, such as rice, cocoa, coconut, banana, sagu (sago), rambutan, langsat, and others.

Dutch Celebes Dutch colony in modern-day Sulawesi, Indonesia

Dutch Celebes refers to the period of colonial governance on the island of Sulawesi - as a commandment of the Dutch East India Company from 1699 until its demise in the early 1800s, and then as a part of the Netherlands Indies or Dutch East Indies until 1945. Dutch presence in the region started with the capture of Sulawesi from the Portuguese, and ended by the declaration of independence by Indonesia. Celebes is now referred to as Sulawesi. Makassar, the capital, was also referred to as: Macassar, Makassar, Macaçar, Mancaçar, or Goa, Gowa.

Makassar people Ethnic group in Indonesia

The Makassar people are an ethnic group that inhabits the southern part of the South Peninsula, Sulawesi in Indonesia. They live around Makassar, the capital city of the province of South Sulawesi, as well as the Konjo highlands, the coastal areas, and the Selayar and Spermonde islands. They speak Makassarese, which is closely related to Buginese and also a Malay creole called Makassar Malay.

Siti Aisyah We Tenriolle

Siti Aisyah We Tenriolle was the Queen ("Datu") regent of the Kingdom of Tanete, South Sulawesi from 1855-1910.

Sultanate of Gowa former country

Sultanate of Gowa, was one of the great kingdoms and the most successful kingdom in the South Sulawesi region. People of this kingdom come from the Makassar tribe who lived in the south end and the west coast of southern Sulawesi.

Early history of Gowa and Talloq The history of Gowa and Talloq between their foundings and the end of the 16th century

The Makassar kingdom of Gowa emerged around 1300 as one of many agrarian chiefdoms in the Indonesian peninsula of South Sulawesi. From the sixteenth century onward, Gowa and its coastal ally Talloq became the first powers to dominate most of the peninsula, following wide-ranging administrative and military reforms, including the creation of the first bureaucracy in South Sulawesi. The early history of the kingdom has been analyzed as an example of state formation.

<i>Netherlands Bible Society</i>

The Netherlands Bible Society is a non-denominational Bible society in the Netherlands devoted to translating, publishing, and distributing the Bible at affordable costs. The NBG is based in Haarlem and was formed on 29 June 1814 on the initiative of the British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS).

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Wayne Arnold (2004-04-07). "Robert Wilson Illuminates Indonesian Creation Myth". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-09-04.
  2. 1 2 Edward Rothstein (2005-07-15). "A Sacred Epic and Its Gods, All Struggling to Survive". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-08-19.
  3. ↑ "UNESCO acknowledges S. Sulawesi's La Galigo". April 28, 2012. Archived from the original on April 29, 2012.
  4. ↑ "La Galigo manuscript - UNESCO heritage – digitally available". July 27, 2017.
  5. ↑ hermes (2017-03-30). "Influence of Bugis in many place names". The Straits Times. Retrieved 2017-03-30.

Further reading

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