The Transmission of Knowledge in Kawi Culture

Panel Convenor(s)

• AG

  Aditia Gunawan

  National Library of Indonesia, Indonesia

Panel Chair(s)

• AG

  Aditia Gunawan

  National Library of Indonesia, Indonesia

Presenter(s)

• TK

  Tyassanti Kusumo

  Mangkunegaran Museum, Indonesia
• AK

  Abimardha Kurniawan

  Universitas Airlangga, Indonesia
• AP

  Agus Darma Putra

  Universitas Hindu Indonesia, Indonesia
• AG

  Aditia Gunawan

  National Library of Indonesia, Indonesia

This panel explores how knowledge was transmitted and circulated during the period when Java, Sunda, Bali, Madura, and Lombok participated in a shared civilisation, which we call "Kawi Culture". Emerging in the late first millennium CE and extending well into the second millennium, Kawi Culture has been transmitted across the ages and has sustained itself in much of the central region of Indonesia. This transmission of knowledge left a deep impression on the societies of today: Bali has become a treasury of Kawi Culture, while in Java, it is revered as an ancestral heritage. The reach of Kawi Culture extends further out to Sunda, Madura and Lombok, where its traces have left an indelible mark on written and oral traditions. Though its roots are many centuries old, Kawi Culture remains vibrantly alive today, as reflected in Indonesian national symbolism (e.g. the state motto Bhinneka Tunggal Ika), present-day Javanist revival movements (kejawen), and the encoding of Kawi scripts for digital platforms.

It is through the transmission of knowledge, whether through texts, artworks, or performances, that Kawi Culture has been able to thrive up to the 21^st century. This panel examines the roles of institutions (palaces, families, monasteries, hermitages, libraries), as well as individual agents (teachers, performers, ascetics, writers), in the transmission of knowledge—including sacred, secular, and artistic knowledge. We invite multidisciplinary investigations of the transmission and circulation of knowledge within the framework of Kawi Culture, including historical, philological, literary, ethnographic, archaeological, performance, and digital approaches. This panel will connect the rich legacy of Kawi Culture with key issues of contemporary knowledge production: including the democratisation of history, decoloniality within and beyond the academy, and the transformative impact of digital lifeways on ancient traditions.

Presentations:

• 09:00 – 10:45 (GMT+7)

  Hermitages in 15th-century Java as Agents of Knowledge Transmission
  

  Presenter: Aditia Gunawan – National Library of Indonesia
• 09:00 – 10:45 (GMT+7)

  Early Buddhism in Bali: An Overview Through Artefactual and Inscriptional Evidence
  

  Presenter: Agus Darma Putra – Universitas Hindu Indonesia
• 09:00 – 10:45 (GMT+7)

  Blessing in Disguise: Kawi Culture in The Early 20th century Through The Hands of Mangkoenagoro VII and His Intellectual Network (1913–44)
  

  Presenter: Tyassanti Kusumo – Mangkunegaran Museum
• 09:00 – 10:45 (GMT+7)

  Bhutasamkhya, Candrabhumi, and their Commentaries
  

  Presenter: Abimardha Kurniawan – Universitas Airlangga