Sureq Galigo or La Galigo is a

creation myth A creation myth or cosmogonic myth is a type of cosmogony, a symbolic narrative of how the world began and how people first came to inhabit it., "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the universe and its inhabitants came to be. Cre ...

of the Luwu from

South Sulawesi South Sulawesi () is a Provinces of Indonesia, province in the South Peninsula, Sulawesi, southern peninsula of Sulawesi, Indonesia. The Selayar Islands archipelago to the south of Sulawesi is also part of the province. The capital and largest ci ...

in modern-day

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

, 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.

Description

La Galigo old manuscript of Bugis in Indonesia

The poem is composed in

pentameter Pentameter (, 'measuring five ( feet)') is a term describing the meter of a poem. A poem is said to be written in a particular pentameter when the lines of the poem have the length of five metrical feet. A metrical foot is, in classical poetry, ...

s and relates the story of humanity's origins but serves also as practical everyday

almanac An almanac (also spelled almanack and almanach) is a regularly published listing of a set of current information about one or multiple subjects. It includes information like weather forecasting, weather forecasts, farmers' sowing, planting dates ...

. It evolved mostly through

oral tradition Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication in which knowledge, art, ideas and culture are received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another.Jan Vansina, Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (19 ...

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. 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 Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

. The original Bugis language, in which also the production is sung, is now only understood by fewer than 100 people but so far only parts of it have been translated into Indonesian and no complete

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

version exists either. The majority of extant La Galigo manuscripts can be found in Indonesia and the Netherlands.

Leiden University Libraries Leiden University Libraries is the set of libraries of Leiden University, founded in 1575 in Leiden, Netherlands. A later edition entitled ''The bastion of liberty : a history of Leiden University'', was published in 2018. Full-text at archive ...

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 Benjamin Frederik 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. The text was written by Colliq Pujié (Arung Pancana Toa), Queen Mother of Tanete, a small kingdom in

. The manuscript is now part of the collection Indonesian manuscripts of the Netherlands Bible Society, given on permanent loan to the

since the years 1905–1915. Together with another La Galigo manuscript, held in

Makassar Makassar ( ), formerly Ujung Pandang ( ), is the capital of the Indonesian Provinces of Indonesia, province of South Sulawesi. It is the largest city in the region of Eastern Indonesia and the country's fifth-largest urban center after Jakarta, ...

, the Leiden manuscript was included in 2012 in UNESCO's

Memory of the World UNESCO's Memory of the World (MoW) Programme is an international initiative to safeguard the documentary heritage of humanity against collective amnesia, neglect, decay over time and climatic conditions, as well as deliberate destruction. It ca ...

(MOW) Register as the second document from Indonesia after

Negarakertagama The ''Nagarakretagama'' or ''Nagarakṛtāgama'', also known in Bali as ''Desawarnana'' or ''Deśavarṇana'', is an Old Javanese eulogy to Hayam Wuruk, a Javanese king of the Majapahit Empire. It was written on lontar as a '' kakawin'' ...

in 2008 to earn the acknowledgement. In 2017, the Leiden manuscript has been made digitally available.

Adaptation

* The music-theatre '' I La Galigo'' by Robert Wilson. ** The 2017 musical ''Galigo: The Chaos Within'', by NUANSA cultural production.

References

External links

* ** Digital version of La Galigo NBG Boeg 188. {{Authority control Creation myths Memory of the World Register Indonesian mythology

Description

Adaptation

References

Further reading

External links