Manuscript Cultures
Example:
Some basic information about the time and places of the Buddha’s life—from a Theravada Buddhist point of view: click here.
The enduring importance of oral textual practices such as memorization and recitation notwithstanding, Buddhist manuscripts—in written form—proliferated into vast numbers of texts, literatures, and cultural forms among Buddhist communities throughout premodern Asia. They comprise a range of religious, artistic, technological, and ideological practices, illuminate historical contexts, and indicate uses of Buddhist literature in different cultural contexts.
Example: A Shan figure inscribed with powerful tattoos shows how the body can be inscribed with ideas of power and protection found in Theravada Buddhist manuscripts.
Here is an example of Buddhist texts carved into marble plates as part of the achievements of the Fifth Buddhist Council held during the reign of King Mindon in the late nineteenth century in Mandalay.
Scholars often point out that Theravada Buddhism, its intellectual ideas, and social practices were shaped by—and also significantly contributed to—social contexts that allowed Buddhist institutions to flourish. Theravada Buddhism, like other religions, is also a social ideology that shapes perceptions of the world and of social structures within it. For example, the Theravada notion of the world in which Buddhists live (sasana) is shaped by the Buddha’s teachings (dhamma). Mandalas are schematic representations of the Buddhist universe and its levels of existence. The eminent scholar of Thai and Sri Lankan Buddhist societies, S. J. Tambiah, described premodern kingdoms of Southeast Asia as mandala states whose royal courts and centers of power radiated outwards. Indeed, multiple centers of Buddhist power existed at certain historical moments and in competition with one another, while their respective powers waxed and waned over time.
Example:
Below is a Burmese depiction of the Buddhist universe (mandala) viewed from above. The image is part of a nineteenth-century painted manuscript, housed in the Library of Congress. Further explanations can be found here.
Traditional Theravada Buddhist kingdoms created encompassing power structures that are grounded in Buddhist truth claims, articulated in particular civilizational narratives and teleological histories, and embodied in their moral cosmologies. The practices of manuscript cultures are central to the emergence of this kind of Buddhist knowledge. A complete set of the Buddhist texts (tipitaka) was seen as part of the ritual foundation of mandala states and the production and acquisition of manuscripts contributed to economies of merit and shaping social hierarchies. Important cultural information can be gleaned from the study of Buddhist manuscripts by looking at the language, writing style, and other internal characteristics found in a given work. Studying manuscripts in their historical and social contexts can reveal information about the cultural processes that explain their production and use.
“In the 17th century, popular writing led to the wider use of palm leaves and folded paper known as parabaiks” (Lieberman 2003, p.136), and Burmese orthography transformed from a square to a cursive format. These manuscripts were usually made of dried palm leaves, into which writing was etched. The text becomes visible once a black mixture of suds and wax is smeared over the etchings and the leaves are polished. Leaves of inscribed texts were then collated and bound with woven ribbons into a collection called parabaik in Burmese. Palm leaf is a fragile material in tropical climates. Fancier manuscripts were therefore made of sheets made of copper or lacquer. Examples of Theravada manuscripts can be seen below:
Examples:
- Take a look at these recent publications:
- Buddhist Cosmology: The Study of a Burmese Manuscript. James Emanuel Bogle, Silkworm Books, 2016.
- Buddhism Illuminated: Manuscript Art from South-East Asia. By San San May, Jana Igunma, University of Washington Press, 2019.
- The Glass Palace Chronicle is an important chronicle of Burmese kingship composed in 1829 on palm leaf.
- This link leads to a blog published by the British Museum and shows examples of manuscripts decorated with gold and gems, illustrating that these sources of knowledge were valued as prestige objects indicating royal status, wealth and Buddhist learning.
Manuscripts thus play important roles in the cultural repertoire, formation of knowledge, and the continuity of the monastic institution as a site of leaning. They also figure prominently in ritual practice (like ordinations), ethical development (recitation during meditation), artistic expression (such as paintings), in cultural exchanges (such as the travel of relics or images), and other areas that shaped the development of Buddhism.
Example:
This video shows an important ritual performed at the Mahamuni Pagoda in Mandalay, the site of the last royal dynasty of Burma. It depicts the daily ritual of washing the face of the Mahamuni Buddha Image. A long mythic history is associated with this image, which was once thought to be alive and acting as a counselor to kings.
What cultural resources facilitate the production of manuscripts? In terms of material culture, repositories of knowledge, and as ritual objects, manuscripts often lay at the center of elaborate socio-religious systems, namely Buddhist kingdoms and their court culture. Buddhist nobility sponsored the production of manuscripts, and palaces often included a library holding a collection of manuscripts. Their sponsorship supported an elite group of monastic literati who produced the manuscripts and copied the texts. The cultural contexts of their production and circulation reveal not only textual and religious notions, but also indicate social, cultural, and ritual realities of Buddhist kingdoms.
For centuries, monks have been the guardians of the Theravada textual tradition, which they copied by hand, expounded in commentaries, memorized by rote, and taught to successive generations of monks and lay people. Monks are therefore a powerful social institution (sangha, or monkhood). Monastic centers of learning promoted not only the copying of Buddhist manuscripts and the compiling of Buddhist texts. They also facilitated literacy, from basic reading and writing to promoting highly complex intellectual interpretations and communities of learning that flourished under royal patronage.
In Burma, monasteries were a venue for learning how to read and write. Generally, disciples did not ask for additional clarifications, as this would have been interpreted as questioning the teacher’s knowledge and authority. While most young boys joined the sangha for a brief period of time, those who chose this path as a lifelong vocation were often compelled by intellectual interests. Monastic examinations still are sponsored and strictly regulated by the state in Myanmar.
Example:
Here is a website depicting contemporary monks in Myanmar.
Although access to manuscripts was limited to elites and monks, they were important prestige items at courts and helped perpetuate existing authority structures. They functioned as modes of dissemination that go beyond the material object of the manuscript itself, as the knowledge contained in manuscripts was shared through memorization, teaching, and copying of texts, conveying narratives such as stories about the Buddha’s past lives (jataka) or about his sermons (sutta), which inspired paintings and theatrical performances.
Colonial views of Buddhist manuscripts intersected with Burmese practices in that both held manuscripts as the repositories of the original Buddhist doctrines. They differed, however, in the ways in which they used manuscripts. Buddhist monks continued to treat manuscripts as living documents (McDaniel 2012), used in their cultural contexts by monastic elites as well as by some village monks. British scholars of the Orient were increasingly concerned with collecting and curating manuscripts in order to search for the pure origins of some mystic Eastern truths. The collection and curation of manuscripts was an important element of nineteenth-century scholarship that focused on the Orient. They were stored in university libraries, where access was limited to scholars who would translate them into Western languages and compile dictionaries, giving rise to new academic disciplines in the late colonial era.
Example: Painted parabaik documenting King Thibaw’s abdication to the British, held at the British Library
