Denpasar Teaches Residents to Care for Lontar Manuscripts

Denpasar — The Denpasar City Library and Archives Service held public education on caring for lontar manuscripts on Friday, Oct. 23, ahead of the Saraswati holy day. The session taught residents how to maintain the fragile palm-leaf texts and was held at the service’s office.

The training used practical instruction led with the involvement of Balinese-language educators. Participants learned to clean lontar with a brush and were told not to use sandalwood water for cleaning. Instead, maintenance should use citronella oil in the correct stages, according to the report.

The activity was designed to help people who own lontar care for the manuscripts independently. Saraswati is a period when residents commonly bring out and maintain their lontar collections, making the timing particularly relevant to household custodians of the texts.

Why it matters to readers

For foreign residents and visitors interested in Bali’s cultural heritage, the workshop illustrates that lontar preservation is not limited to museums or specialist institutions. The manuscripts remain part of community life, and their care involves specific methods rather than routine cleaning with water or other household products.

The same program also included nyurat lontar, or writing on palm leaves, using an pengrupak and metembang. The writing activity targeted junior-high-school students and university students, connecting physical preservation with continued use of Balinese script and manuscript traditions.

The report said the writing program is held every Thursday and would continue until November. It did not state a participant total or identify a separate follow-up schedule for the manuscript-care training.

Sources

• Bali Post — Indonesian news outlet
• bali.tribunnews.com
• bali.idntimes.com