After watching theatrical performances and dance about the epic I La Galigo at 23 - 24 April 2011 in Fort Rotterdam, Makassar. I'm interested to see first hand the ancient manuscripts from South Sulawesi in the library of Leiden University in The Netherlands.
The third world’s most expensive director, Robert Wilson raised the epic story of the Bugis culture of this land which is the most complete story on an international scale, because an accumulation of art, culture and science.
The manuscript is the longest in world literature with 6,000 pages - the length exceeds the literary Indian "Mahabharata". The epic tells the story of heroic protagonist Sawerigading and its manuscripts scattered and hardly ever lost.
King Paccana, Colliq PujiE (1812-1876) is the person who collected them back and rewrited into 12 volumes with a total of 2.851 pages.
In the 1800s, Dutch scientist Dr. Benjamin Frederik Matthes had carried 15 manuscripts I La Galigo to the Netherlands. The original manuscript written on sheets of papyrus (lontarak) is then stored in the Library of the Leiden University, The Netherlands.
La Galigo manuscript collections in this library is the most comprehensive in the world. Even Indonesia did not have it complete as this.
Therefore, one of my dreams when arrive in the Netherlands is like knowing a lot about that. Moreover, the manuscript until now has not returned to Indonesia, because of limited facilities and funds to preserve the ancient texts such as literary works I la Galigo.
