La Galigo : A Great Literary Work of Old Bugis, South Sulawesi, Indonesia.

One of the page excerpts from the La Galigo Manuscript from Bugis.(energibangsa.id)

 

The book of Mahabharata, as well as Ramayana, from India has been recognized as the longest and largest literary work ever written. However, according to a Dutch scientist, RAKern in his Catalogus van de Boegineesche I tot de La Galigocyclus Behoorende Handschriften der Leidsche Universiteitbibliotheek published by Universiteitbibliotheek Leiden (1939: 1) asserted the Book of La Galigo from South Sulawesi Indonesia as the longest and largest literary work in the world.

RAKern himself was advocated by a historian and other Dutch scientist, Sirtjof Koolhof. According to his line of thinking, the Book of La Galigo is the longest in the world literature as it extends for over 300,000 lines, while the epic Mahabharata number of rows between 160000-200000 lines. Their arguments were made based on 12 volumes of La Galigo manuscript now stored in the Library of the University of Leiden, the Netherlands.

La Galigo is  an epic poem telling the story of the creation of  the Bugis people. The epic was written down in manuscript form between the 18th and 20th century  in the Bugis language, based on an earlier oral tradition. It has become known to a wider audience mostly through the theatrical adaptation I La Galigo by Robert Wilson. (wikipedia).

In 2010, La Galigo was submitted by Indonesia and Netherland to the UNESCO and included in the Memory of the World (MOW) in 201 (http://www.unesco.org). 

Source:https://riniintama.wordpress.com/2014/04/05/la-galigo/