Kategori: The KIBS's Papers | Diterbitkan pada: 02-11-2008 | 1 Komentar »

Paper by A. Teeuw, Leiden

From what has been said above it might seem as if the poems, although written in Old Sundanese, are essentially foreign texts, representing Indian or at best Old Javanese culture: the Rama text as an offshoot of the Greater India Ramayana tradition, the other two as manifestations of popular Shiwaism as it developed in ‘Greater Java’ on the basis of Indian religious and philosophical systems. However, this impression is one-sided, if not completely wrong. In the final part of this paper it shall be pointed out that we are dealing with literary products of a typically local, i.e. (Old) Sundanese nature.

Kategori: The KIBS's Papers | Diterbitkan pada: 30-10-2008 | Tak ada komentar »

By Robert Wessing

Whether noble or pious, such a person is thought to have had special cosmic powers, akin to the Javanese kesakten described by Anderson (1972), and their power and authority are thus at least partly constituted in terms of ritual agency, e.g. their ability to deal with the dangerous forces of the forest. After the founder’s death these powers are thought to continue to adhere to his grave, which may therefore be utilized for the needs of those living under its influence – e.g. within the sacred field. However, they also devolved derivatively upon one of his sons and with this also the leadership and the obligations to the spirit world. The spirit of the founder, furthermore, as well as those of other deceased ancestors, continued to guard the welfare of their descendants, which included making sure that these continue to follow the adat, the rules for a good life in the community. In part because of its involvement of both nature and ancestral spirits, the community may be seen as a sacred one in which the balance between the two spheres is carefully maintained through the application of the adat, part of which involves the veneration of the various spirits (Wessing in press b). Given the local nature of these spirits, the adat governing dealing with them must, of course, for that part be very local as well. Indeed, since the spirits are intrinsic to the place, this adat must be so as well.