Ida I Dewa Gde Catra, Choice of Life for Lontar Preserver
Ida I Dewa Gede Catra
Ida I Dewa Gde Catra, 82, has spent years preserving lontar. His vision, his chanting, fingers and his heart have been devoted to caring for and digging into the richness of the messages of virtue in the lontar leaves. He has tried hard to ensure the lontar can be read by present and future generations.
Writing Balinese script on lontar leaves is part of Gde Catra\'s daily life. This ability has been practiced thanks to the guidance of his late father and mother, Ida I Dewa Wayan Pucangan and I Dewa Ayu Rai.
Gde Catra has since his adolescence been wishing to devote his life indefinitely to sustaining cakepan by cakepan of lontar literature. Cakepan is a term for a pair of Balinese lontar leave clappers, a kind of book bundle.
Introduction to the Balinese script written on the lontar began from his home environment. His father was not only very diligent in taking care of his lontar leaves but also understood what was written on them. From his father, Gde Catra learned about the Balinese scripts.
Gde Catra\'s acquintance, Prof. Huaekas from Leiden University Library, the Netherlands, made him love lontar even more. He was shocked and at the same time concerned because there were a large number of lontar manuscript collections in the Netherlands.
For the first time, he was asked by the representatives of Leiden University to copy lontar in 1979. The lontar was in the form of old manuscript Negarakertagama.
"They asked through Prof. Huaekas to help copy their lontar collection. Because the lontar had to be returned to Indonesia and they still wanted to keep their copies," he said on Friday (21/6/2019).
Gde Catra immediately accepted the offer of copying one lontar cakepan of Negarakertagama at a fee of around US$5 for five copies of the palm leaves at that time.
He was very impressed when he got a special typewriter shipment for the copying of Balinese scripts onto lontar leaves into Latin script. He kept the typewriter well, treated it well until now. "I used it from 1979 to 1997. After that, I learned to use a computer," said Gde Catra.
Until now, the Leiden University Library still entrusts the copying of the Balinese lontar or Javanese lontar script into the Latin scripts to Gde Catra.
He is also still asked to copy lontar. The former head of SDN 1 state elementary school in Padangkerta, Karangasem, does it with all his heart.
Besides that, Gde Catra writes Astadasa Purwa\'s manscripts in 18 volumes on the Mahabharata story in the form of cakepan of the Balinese lontar script.
Regeneration
This man, who was born in Sidemen, keeps trying to find young people who want to be involved to care for and preserve Balinese lontar and scripts. Unfortunately, the search often ends dissatisfyingly. One of them was when the Bali Culture Office held a lontar writing competition in 1989 in Denpasar.
The competition turned out to be the first and the last ever held because the number of people interested in the event was small and the quality of the participants was not as expected. However, he was happy because lately the race related to lontar writing was active again in a number of schools or campuses.
Until now, Gde Catra is actively looking for lontar writers from the regency to regency. He only finds a number of people who are willing and loyal to be on the lontar conservation pathway. Unfortunately, of some talented people, who have been found, one by one said goodbye to the world of lontar literature.
But he understands why talented people do not exist as long as he does. The reason is the fact that copying, caring for, translating the lontar literature language does not promise economic benefits. Even though, according to him, the service for writing lontar per sheet has been raised from around Rp 15,000 per sheet to Rp 150,000 per sheet now.
"Again, all of that is a choice of the way of life and the call of heart. No one can force to come and go from the world of lontar leaves," he said softly.
Nevertheless, he remains not to be discouraged to look for talented teenagers. He also does not stop to spread his knowledge to anyone who gladly wants to study form him.
Museum
Talking about lontar is like raising the spirit of Gde Catra. He is happy if someone asks and wants to learn about lontar. Kakiang (a call for a grandfather in Bali) is a former teacher and headmaster since 1992 masters lontar from upstream to downstream.
In preserving lontar, Gde Catra is assisted by AA Gede Raka Buana, 52, a Balinese language teacher. He faithfully accompanied Gde Catra to digitize lontar.
A part of his ancient lontar collections is around 400 years old, namely Buana Kosa which was made in the Saka year 1547 (1625 AD). For more than 50 years, Gde Catra cared for around 4,000 cakepan. Some of the lontar collections are also stored at the Dukuh Penaban Lontar Pustaka Museum, Karangasem.
With his daughter, I Dewa Ayu Puspita Padmi, he does ngayah (working without being paid) in the museum which was established thanks to the initiative of the local village with the self-help funds and donors. Gde Catra and her daughter together with several people help conserve lontar, including cleaning, inventorying, and repairing lontar damages in the museum. They do not expect payment of the service for the lontar treatment.
Gde Catra is also happy to help treat the lontar stored by the residents. "I think how to convince the public that it is important to learn and take care of lontar," he said.
He hoped that the contents of the lontar would not only be stored neatly in luxurious containers for sacred reasons. "In the end they are damaged and the contents are no longer readable," he said.
Gde Catra hopes that the lontar manuscripts can be read because in the cakepan there are a lot of hidden goodness covering the medical treatment, the variety of ceremonies, to the well-behaved advice.
Ida I Dewa Gede Catra, writer and activist who preserves ancient lontar manuscripts from Karangasem, Bali.
Ida I Dewa Gde Catra
Born: Sidemen, 23 June 1937
Wife: (Late) Jro Wija Kesuma
Anak:
- (late) Ida I Dewa Gede Putu Pucangan
- I Dewa Ayu Kusuma Dewi
- I Dewa Ayu Mayun Trisnawati
- I Dewa Ayu Puspita Padmi
Grandchildren: 8
Grand-grandchildren: 2
Education:
- SGB (1956)
- SLA (1969)
Experiences, among others:
- Tearcher/Elementary School Headmaster (1956/1957 to 31 December 1991)
- A member of the translation team at the Elementary Education Office, Denpasar (1985-1997)
- Started writing on lontar leaves (1972)
- Transcribing lontar manuscript from the Balinese letter into the Latin letter or vice versa (1981-up to the present)
- Providing lontar manuscript for the office of the documentation center in Bali (1985-1997)
- A member of the lontar inventory team, translator, and a staff to record ancient articles at the Culture Office of Karangasem regency
