Page - 103 - in Document Image Processing

J. Imaging 2018,4, 43 2. PalmLeafManuscripts fromSoutheastAsia Regarding theuse ofwritingmaterials and tools, history records thediscovery of important documentswrittenonstoneplates, clayplatesor tablets,bark, skin,animalbones, ivory, tortoiseshell, papyrus,parchment (formof leathermadeofprocessedsheepskinorcalfskin) (http://www.casepaper. com/company/paper-history) [14], copper and bronze plates, bamboo, palm leaves, and other materials [15]. Thechoiceofnaturalmaterials that canbeusedasamediumfordocumentwriting isstrongly influencedbythegeographicalconditionandlocationofanation. Forexample,because bambooandpalmtreesareeasily foundinAsia,bothtypesofmaterialswere thefirstchoiceofwriting material inAsia. In SoutheastAsia,most ancientmanuscriptswerewritten onpalm leaves. For example, inCambodia, palm leaves have beenused as awritingmaterial dating back to thefirst appearanceofBuddhisminthecountry. InThailand,driedpalmleaveshavealsobeenusedasoneof themostpopularwrittendocuments forover500years [16]. Palmleaveswerealsohistoricallyusedas writingsupports inmanuscripts fromtheIndonesianarchipelago. The leavesof sugar,or toddy,palm (Borassusflabellifer)areknownas lontar. Theexistenceofancientpalmleafmanuscripts inSoutheast Asia isvery importantboth in termsof thequantityandvarietyofhistorical contents. 2.1. BalinesePalmLeafManuscripts—Collection fromBali, Indonesia 2.1.1.Corpus Apart fromthecollectionat themuseum(MuseumGedongKertyaSingarajaandMuseumBali Denpasar), it isestimatedthat therearemore than50,000 lontarcollections thatareownedbyprivate families (Figure1). For this research, inorder toobtaina largevarietyofmanuscript images, sample imageshavebeencollected from23different collections,which come fromfivedifferent locations (regions): twomuseumsandthreeprivate families. Theyconsistof10randomlyselectedcollections fromMuseumGedongKertya,CityofSingaraja,RegencyofBuleleng,NorthBali, Indonesia, four collectionsfrommanuscriptcollectionsofMuseumBali,CityofDenpasar,SouthBali, sevencollections fromaprivate family collection from thevillage of Jagaraga, RegencyofBuleleng, and twoother private family collections fromthevillageofSusut,RegencyofBangli and thevillageofRendang, RegencyofKarangasem[17]. Figure1.Balinesepalmleafmanuscripts. 2.1.2. BalineseScriptandLanguage Although the official language of Indonesia, Bahasa Indonesia, iswritten in the Latin script, Indonesiahasmanylocal, traditional scripts,mostofwhichareultimatelyderivedfromBrahmi[18]. InBali, palm leafmanuscriptswerewritten in theBalinese script in theBalinese language, in the ancient literary textscomposedin theoldJavanese languageofKawiandSanskrit. Balinese language is aMalayo-Polynesian languagespokenbymore than3millionpeople,mainly inBali, Indonesia (www.omniglot.com/writing/balinese.htm) [19]. Balinese is thenative languageof thepeople of Bali,knownlocallyasBasaBali [18]. ThealphabetandnumbersofBalinesescriptarecomposedof ±100characterclasses includingconsonants,vowels,andsomeotherspecial compoundcharacters. Accordingto theUnicodeStandard9.0, theBalinesescriptactuallyhas theUnicodetable from1B00 to1B7F. 103