Thursday (24/11/2022), the Javanese Literature Study Program held a seminar entitled "Rereading Colophonic Manuscripts, Archives, Archaeological Remains, and Oral Traditions of the Merapi-Merbabu Scriptorium Manuscripts" held in the Soegondo building room 709, Faculty of Cultural Science, Universitas Gadjah Mada. The event which took place from 13.00 to 15.00 WIB was attended by students of the UGM Javanese Literature Study Program and the audience, especially those who were interested in the scripts of the Merapi-Merbabu scriptorium.
This seminar presented Bima Slamet Raharja, S.S., M.A., a Javanese Literature lecturer at UGM, as the moderator. Complete with one of the Javanese Literature students, Marsha Allifia Nadhira, as the Master of Ceremony (MC).
The presenter at this event was Rendra Agusta, S.S., M.Sos., a researcher and observer of ancient texts with a focus on Old Javanese and New Javanese. He is also the founder of the Strada Institute, a community engaged in independent research related to issues of preservation, development, and use of text-based cultural objects, both manuscripts and inscriptions. In this seminar, Rendra Agusta, S.S., M.Sos., guided the participants to get acquainted with the Merapi-Merbabu scriptorium and explore the traces of tradition and local wisdom values contained therein.
One of the interesting things he conveyed was about the term Merapi-Merbabu manuscripts themselves. "Terms change. Starting from the Merbabu manuscripts, the Merbabu-Merapi script, then in the catalog it was written Merapi-Merbabu," said Rendra Agusta, S.S., M.Sos. "The latter mention is in Abimardha's (Dr. Abimardha Kurniawan, M.A.) dissertation which calls it mountain texts because these texts are not only found in Merapi-Merbabu, but also in Lawu, Wilis, Telomoyo, Andong, Ungaran, and possibly more broadly." he continued.
After Rendra Agusta, S.S., M.Sos., finished his presentation, the moderator opened the question session. Seminar participants were very enthusiastic about participating in this event, as evidenced by the many questions asked to the speakers during the question session.
By holding this seminar, it is hoped that it will increase participants' understanding of the colophons of the Merapi-Merbabu scriptorium texts as conveyed by Arsanti Wulandari S.S, M.Hum., in the remarks of the head of the study program representative.
