Old Balinese Language and Script Training

• By Admin
• Senin, 20 Mei 2024

Old Balinese Language and Script Training is part of a series of events in the Indonesiana program organized by PAEI. This event was held on May 17 2024 in the Priyono Room, Faculty of Humanities, Jln. Nias Island no. 13, Sanglah, Denpasar. This event was attended by lecturers from the Udayana University archeology study program, lecturers from the Ancient Javanese study program, the general public, and students from the Udayana University archeology study program.

Before the event started, Mrs. Luh Suwita Utami, as chairman of PAEI Komda Bali, gave a speech. He said that training in writing Old Balinese script was important because, to quote himself, "inscription sources in Bali, at present, in large numbers, use Old Balinese and Old Javanese." On this occasion, the training will only focus on the Old Balinese language. Mrs. Suwita also hopes that through this event, archeology students will become more interested in studying epigraphy.

The moderator of this event was Mr. I Gede Bagus Darma Putra and the speaker was Drs. I Gusti Ngurah Tara Wiguna M.Sc. Pak Darma himself is a member of PAEI Komda Bali. The Old Balinese language and script training is divided into two parts where in the first part, the speaker explains material regarding the development of Indonesian script, especially the Old Balinese script, and in the second part, there will be practice writing Old Balinese script.

In his presentation in the first part, Drs. I Gusti Ngurah Tara Wiguna M.Si said that script and language are windows to knowledge. Without literacy, we are "completely blind". He also showed ancient scripts, such as the Brahmi script, which is the forerunner of the scripts in Indonesia, including the Old Balinese script. This Old Balinese script has also developed into the Balinese script used today.

         In the second part, Drs. I Gusti Ngurah Tara Wiguna M.Si demonstrated directly how to write Old Balinese script with a blackboard. He also taught how to read the Trunyan A1 inscription. Participants are invited to practice directly by writing their names using Old Balinese script.

         Old Balinese Language and Script training starts at 9:30 WITA and ends at 14:00 WITA. This event was attended by 51 people. Each participant is encouraged to continue practicing reading and writing ancient Balinese script so they can read inscriptions found in the field.