textile; painting (ritual & belief: representations)

Painting on canvas depicting the story of Panji and Langkesari, with scenes showing (bottom right) Panji asking his ministers to look for her, above this and to the left some of the ministers looking for her, above right is Panji in the forest playing music on a bamboo instrument; above this he continues travelling in the forest; above and to the left Panji finds a lontar tree and writes a love letter to Langkesari on lontar leaf, and knowing that she likes to spend her leisure time by the river, sets the letter afloat. To the left of this Langkesari finds the letter and reads it. The top left corner shows Langkesari before this, travelling towards the river. Below the previous scene we see Langkesari grooming herself in front of a mirror in order to look beautiful; to the left of this the couple have met and embrace. Bottom left are female servants of Langkesari bathing in the river, and to the right of this, centre bottom, Langkesari’s father king Lasem and his concubines. NB There are many versions of this story; Langkesari is sometimes the object of King Lasem's desire rather than his daughter. This is a local interpretation.

Collection Information

These objects are only a part of our collections, of which there are more than 350,000 objects. This information comes from our collections database. Some of this is incomplete and there may be errors. This part of the website is also still under construction, so there may be some fields repeated or incorrectly formatted information.

The database retains language taken from historical documents to help research. Please note that some records may feature language and reflect systems of thinking that are outdated and offensive. The database also includes information on objects that are considered secret or sacred by some communities.

If you have any further information about objects in our collections, can suggest corrections to our information or if you see content requiring immediate action, please contact us: enquiry@horniman.ac.uk