The Indonesia Chronicles
A century of Indonesia from the perspective of the print medium: maps and manuscripts, speeches and decrees, poetry and prose, fiction and non-fiction.
Here is a portrait of a nation nurturing its society, in hardship and in happiness, imperfect yet idealistic, recorded in text.
May 20, 2008
IN June 1815, Thomas Stamford Raffles traveled to Tengger, Mt Bromo, in search of an ancient, local-language manuscript. In that same month, he also traveled to Bali, where he obtained the Balinese version of the Hindu epic, Bharatayudha, from the King of Buleleng. On his trip to Solo, Central Java, he was presented with the Serat Manik Maya (The Manik Maya Manuscripts) by Sultan Pakubuwono IV.
During his short administration in Java, Raffles so
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