Historian Wayan Jarrah Sastrawan has written about the Lombok palm-leaf manuscripts in Leiden University Library.
‘The showdown between them culminated in the destruction of the kingdom’s palaces in mid-November 1894. After the final battle, the Dutch seized a vast treasure hoard, among them one of the most significant libraries of Indonesian palm-leaf manuscripts ever collected.
This collection was donated by the Indies government in 1906 to Leiden University Library, where it remains today except for one manuscript.
This manuscript contains a bundle of Old Javanese poems, including the uniquely important Javanese chronicle Deśavarṇana (Or. 5023), which tells the history of the Majapahit kingdom in the 14th century, was repatriated to Indonesia in 1973 and is now kept in the National Library in Jakarta.
