Sulawesi
Unique manuscripts of the rice and karst towns
Manuscripts from Bantaeng and Maros are written in Lontara, yet read right-to-left like Arabic — a tradition all their own.
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Stories from the field
Every manuscript carries a story.
Throughout each digitisation mission, our team encountered compelling narratives worth sharing — especially with those passionate about preserving cultural heritage.
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From the archive
West Java
Ancestral counsel in the Madrais manuscripts
Madrais passed on the counsel of his Sundanese ancestors through notes inscribed on folio sheets during the Dutch colonial era. Years later, some of those manuscripts became court evidence in the Leuweung Leutik customary-forest land dispute.
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West Java
Ancestral counsel in the Madrais manuscripts
Colonial-era folios that later became evidence in a customary-forest land dispute.
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Madura · East Java
The Bilapora manuscripts in a Madurese gerbung
A Facebook post revealed old manuscripts kept in an inherited gerbung in Sumenep. DREAMSEA digitised what remained.
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Indramayu · West Java
A register of widows in Dermayu
In old Indramayu villages, manuscripts are a shared communal memory — administrative archives, including records of marriage and divorce.
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Makassar · Sulawesi
A memory of Chinese–Makassar closeness
Peranakan writing in Lontara — 500 bundles digitised from a 2,000-manuscript corpus of classic Chinese tales.
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Tanah Abang · Jakarta
Traces of Hadrami scholars in Betawi
Scholars from Hadramaut wrote on jurisprudence and beyond. DREAMSEA digitised some 5,000 pages from 11 bundles at Jamiat Kheir.
Read storyMore stories await in the repository.
Each digitised collection opens a window onto the communities who created and kept these manuscripts.