Moloku Kie Raha Community and Their Old Manuscript Heritage

Moloku Kie Raha is a term to call four sovereigns in Maluku, also called kolano: Ternate, Tidore, Bacan, and Jailolo. As one of the most important point of shipping route during 'silk road' period, the presence of foreign people (Javanese, Chinese, Arab, and European) during 14^th - 17^th century who came bringing their own culture and language, and also interacting with local people, helped shaping the local writtings. The objective of this research is to take data, preserve, and inform the existence and to know the view of Moloku Kie Raha society about their heritance of ancient manuscripts. This research is a codicological-anthropologic. It means that the old manuscripts will be reviewed codicologically, and the community as the owners will be approached anthropologically. The results of this research are to digitalize and make a list of the manuscripts and information about the view of its society.