This man can learn and write 30 historic Indonesian scripts, some as previous as 500 years

JAKARTA: Diaz Nawaksara grew up throughout the rise of the Web and telecommunications.

When the 30-year-old went to school, he determined to check info administration, focusing on storing info via computational strategies.

However as trendy as his instructional qualification sounds, his job these days includes one thing very historic: Preserving Indonesian scripts which might be as previous as 500 years.

“I began in 2012 by finding out the Javanese script first,” Nawaksara recounted, referring to the native language of these from Indonesia’s and the world’s most populated island of Java.

As we speak, he can learn and write over 30 historic Indonesian scripts. He understands fluently about half of the languages related to these scripts.

It’s a uncommon skill contemplating that the majority Indonesians can solely learn one or two scripts.

Most Indonesians can learn Latin, the script used for the nationwide language Bahasa Indonesia in addition to English. Others additionally know Arabic for studying the Koran or Chinese language.

READ: Meet the Indonesian artist who turns family waste into shadow puppets

Nawaksara claimed that typically, it’s fairly simple to be taught historic Indonesian scripts.

“The transformation of a script every now and then can nonetheless be traced, possibly the issue is extra on understanding the language and its which means. As a result of a lot of the languages in manuscripts are hardly ever utilized in every day dialog.

“The (mastery of) vocabulary determines the fluency in studying the traditional manuscripts, no matter the kind of script,” he advised CNA.

As soon as an English tutor and a tour information, Nawaksara is now a contract researcher who works to protect historic Indonesian scripts in addition to historical past. 

CHANCE ENCOUNTER WITH JAVANESE MANUSCRIPT

Nawaksara was born and raised in Bandung metropolis, West Java. His mother and father are of Sundanese ethnicity.

His try and learn and write Javanese script got here by probability.

He was at all times drawn to antiques. Since junior highschool, he has been amassing objects courting again to the time earlier than Indonesia’s independence in 1945 resembling previous radios, gramophones and sacred daggers often called keris.

Upon finishing his research, he moved to Yogyakarta in central Java to work as a tour information and English tutor within the metropolis usually dubbed because the cultural capital of Indonesia.

At some point, he went to an area flea market and found an historic Javanese manuscript.

He was intrigued by it and determined to buy it though he couldn’t learn Javanese script. It turned out to be an historic laws manuscript of Yogyakarta’s sultanate throughout the Dutch colonial occasions. The manuscript was often called rijksblad.

Coincidentally, his girlfriend was Javanese and will learn the manuscript. She taught him the right way to learn it. 

“Fortunately, I used to be additionally obsessed with languages so I may research it intensely and was targeted.

“After a month, I may begin writing it. And after two, three months I may learn it fluently,” he mentioned.

READ: Final monarchy in Indonesia – Rifts over a doable feminine sultan

It marked the beginning of his quest to seek out different manuscripts and be taught totally different previous Indonesian scripts.

“Since then, I began amassing extra Javanese historic books.

“A yr later, I stumbled upon an older script named Kawi script,” he advised CNA.

Kawi is taken into account the ancestor of Javanese script and is regarded as associated to Indian scripts which developed someday throughout the eighth to 16th century.

To be able to improve his understanding, Nawaksara visited temples and museums that exhibited the script.

ANCIENT SCRIPTS GIVE ANSWERS ABOUT ANCESTORS

Nawaksara has since travelled throughout Indonesia to seek out historic manuscripts and research the scripts. He mentioned this led him to a greater comprehension of historical past.

There are over 600 ethnicities in Indonesia and figuring out some historic scripts results in a greater understanding of how the varied ethnicities within the nation are associated and even stretching to neighbouring nations resembling Malaysia and Singapore, he mentioned.

He usually buys historic manuscripts to check them additional. As they will command a worth of as excessive as 500 million rupiah (US$35,984), he typically bargains with the sellers and asks to rewrite them at a lower cost.

The researcher has by no means forked out greater than 5 million rupiah for a manuscript.

Throughout his search, he additionally discovered a sacred Balinese script believed to have excessive non secular values.

He loves figuring out new issues and giving the solutions to individuals’s questions which he usually finds by studying the traditional scripts.

However above all the things, Nawaksara believes you will need to know Indonesian historic scripts and protect them as a result of it displays a nation’s id.

“Many individuals do not know their ancestors and what their experience was. They do not know as a result of they can not learn the supply.

“Once they can learn the manuscripts, it means they know extra particulars about their ancestors.”

Paraphrasing a quote by Indonesia’s first president and founding father Soekarno, Nawaksara mentioned: “When being a Muslim, don’t be an Arab. When being a Hindu, don’t be an Indian. When being a Christian, don’t be a Westerner.”

“It’s all about id,” defined Nawaksara.

“As we speak, there are non secular people who find themselves misplaced as a result of they do not know their id,” he mentioned.

That is additionally the rationale why Nawaksara now desires to digitalise the scripts he is aware of so that they is not going to get misplaced in time.

His info administration experience obtained throughout faculty helps him with this. He’s working in direction of laptop keyboards and web sites in historic Indonesian scripts for the general public sooner or later.

For individuals who need to research historic scripts, Nawaksara recommends becoming a member of a group to make the method simpler.

He additionally hopes that the federal government can be extra concerned in preserving historic Indonesian scripts.

“As a lot as doable, as quickly as doable, the federal government ought to problem a regulation or a presidential decree that the Indonesian state owns these scripts.”

Learn this story in Bahasa Indonesia right here.