Kawi language

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Kawi Bhāṣa Kawi, Old Javanese
Spoken in:	Java, Bali, Madura, Lombok, Indonesia; Philippines
Region:	Malay Archipelago
Language extinction:	literary language, archaic by 14th century
Language family:	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Western Malayo-Polynesian Sundic Kawi
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	`kaw`
ISO 639-3:	`kaw`
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Kawi (from Sanskrit: kavi, "poet") is a language from the islands of Java, Bali, and Lombok. It is actually a literary language based on Old Javanese, but heavily interlarded with Sanskrit loanwords.

The language has its own unique alphabets for writing, including Old Kawi and Tulisan Bali, a script that evolved from Pallava script. Kawi is extinct as a spoken language, but is still used in Bali, Lombok and to some extent in Java as a literary language. It is also the main language used for the Lombok cultural practice of reading and writing literature on the leaves of the lontar palm.

One book originally written in Kawi that is of some significance in the world is the poem Susila Budhi Dharma. This was written by Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo, the founder of Subud. In this work, he provides a framework for understanding the experience of the latihan kejiwaan; a spiritual training that he spontaneously received and then passed on to those who were interested.