About the Project
The Inya-Burma Institute’s project with MEAP focuses on the written and visual works housed in Burmese monasteries that were commissioned by the Shan rulers of Hsipaw, Kyaingtong, and Yawng-nghwe (now Nyaung-shwe). Materials selected for this project include manuscripts of Buddhist/secular texts, visualizations (such as photographs) of Shan rulers and of historical events, and various pieces of ephemera (e.g. posters, calendars, announcements). Most of these materials date from the late 1800’s to the 1960s. This collection illustrates the religious dynamics of the colonial era in Myanmar (Burma), including the mobility of Buddhist ideologies, Buddhist practices, and practitioners within the area (i.e. monks and lay persons).
From the late 1980’s to the early 1990’s (and occasionally in the present), Southeast Asian manuscripts were often sold to tourists due to the material’s historic desirability and their vulnerability to theft. While the risk of losing physical materials still exists, digitized versions of these manuscripts will help safeguard the written works and will preserve their content for future research and use.
This collection holds significance to a wide array of scholars within and outside of Myanmar, including those studying Buddhism, Shan history, and the history of Burma/Myanmar. It will advance the understanding of the Shan monastic community that has been historically patronized by Shan lords during the colonial period. The materials document (1) rulers’ efforts in institutionalizing the Buddhist community and (2) the social connections established by rulers who circulated sacred texts, donated to monasteries, and held religious events.
The resulting inventory of Buddhist manuscripts, secular texts, visual materials such as photos and portraits, books, and various ephemera accounts for monastic libraries across the Greater Shan country straddling eastern Myanmar and northern Thailand.
Working at multiple sites has allowed the project team to identify and secure more artifacts and to develop a comparative approach that will support ongoing scholarship on Shan history and culture. This approach advances understanding of colonial-era religious dynamics and the mobility of Buddhist ideas and practices in the Shan region and beyond.
The Inya-Burma Institute’s work allows users to explore religious ideas, practices, and individuals within a community that persisted in a region considered too remote to develop such religious dynamics. It also supplies evidence of a Shan monastic community that managed to incorporate technological advancements of the 20th century to help assert moral authority.
Project Lead
Francois Tainturier
Host Institution
More Information
Project Findings
The project surveyed 74 monasteries in the three areas of Taunggyi, Kengtung (both in the Shan State, Myanmar), and Mae Hong Son (northwest Thailand). Existing catalogues of manuscript collections were available only at very few monasteries and the team could not attain the same level of access at all monasteries.
In the Taung-gyi area, out of 16 monasteries visited, the following 5 monastic collections were identified for future digitization and cataloguing: (1) Hamsi Monastery; (2) San-Ngaw Monastery; (3) Sa-Oun Monastery; (4) Nam-Hok Monastery; (5) and Hko-Lubb Monastery. Hamsi’s monastic collection holds 82 manuscripts (all palm-leaf manuscripts), a significant number for a monastery located in a rural area. The four following monasteries located in Pa-O villages hold a much smaller manuscript collection but their combined number amounts to 150 mulberry paper parabaik manuscripts, 90 palm-leaf manuscripts, and 17 bound scrolls. Banyin Monastery holds 48 manuscripts (20 mulberry paper parabaik manuscripts; 28 palm-leaf manuscripts). At visit time, the abbot had still to be persuaded of the relevance of digitizing the manuscript collection (an inventory is available but not a proper catalogue).
In the Kengtung area, out of 37 monasteries visited, only Wat Tongsi and Wat Long Loi were identified for future digitization and cataloguing efforts. Wat Tongsi holds about 50-60 mulberry paper pap-sa manuscripts and over a hundred palm-leaf manuscripts. For Wat Long Loi, no information could be obtained about the number and content of manuscripts as access to this collection proved impossible at the time of visit for Wat Loi Long but the historical significance of the monastery connected to the former lord of the Kengtung principality warrants digitization and cataloguing of the manuscripts preserved there. A third monastery, Wat Inn, Kengtung’s oldest monastery located in the middle of the city, could also possibly be the object of future digitization and cataloguing work: we learned that digitization of the manuscripts was completed in the early 2010s but couldn’t locate any of the digital files. Considering the current condition of the manuscript collection held with no proper maintenance in manuscript cabinets, if the project team couldn’t eventually locate these digital files, it would consider a new round of digitization.
In the Mae Hong Son area, out of 23 monasteries visited, the following three monasteries were identified for future digitization and cataloguing work: Wat Huay Pha, Wat Papu, and Wat To Phae. At the visit time, only Wat Papu’s manuscript catalogue was accessible with a total number of 94 manuscripts.
The key finding from the survey is the high linguistic diversity featured in the manuscript collections identified, a higher linguistic diversity than anticipated. The project team expected to identify manuscripts composed in Tai Long, Tai Khuen, Tai Yuan, and Myanmar scripts, and some featuring Pali language and written in Tai Long, Tai Khuen, or Myanmar scripts. But the survey in the three areas has also revealed many manuscripts composed in Pa-O, Tai Nuea, and possibly other languages.
Another finding, at least valid for the Mae Hong Son aera, is that custodianship of manuscripts in monastic libraries seems to be shared among various stakeholders. Manuscripts are not under the sole responsibility of the monastery’s abbot but they are also under the custodianship of local zare, laymen in charge of chanting texts on special occasions held at the monasteries under the auspices of the community, and, more generally, of the members of the village community who have donated manuscripts to the monastery. If digitization and cataloguing work is pursued as the project’s next step, the project team will investigate whether this notion of shared custodianship may also apply to
monasteries identified in the Taung-gyi and Kengtung areas.
Lastly, the few catalogues of manuscripts available and the preliminary assessments made by one of the two Co-PIs, Dr. Jotika Khur-Yearn, suggest that the historical span covered by most collections extends from the mid-19th century (with very rare cases of early 19th-century palm-leaf manuscripts) to the early 1970s.
Identification Report(opens in a new tab)
Identification report of manuscripts collections held at monastic libraries surveyed across the Greater Shan country straddling eastern Myanmar and northern Thailand. The survey was conducted in three areas: Taung-gyi and its surroundings, including the Pa-O self administered area; Kengtung and its valley; and Mae Hong Son and its surroundings.
Monastery Catalogues
Catalogue from Hamsi Monastery(opens in a new tab)
Preliminary cataloguing of the Hamsi Monastery's manuscript collection: The majority of the 82 manuscripts held at Hamsi Monastery in the Taung-gyi area (Southern Shan State, Myanmar), are Buddhist canonical texts and nissaya (in general terms, Pali textual sources written in Burmese alphabet) written on palm-leaves; but further research is likely to identify a few of them which could be rare texts. The wrapping textile cloths which protect the palm-leaf manuscripts also add significant value to the collection. Overall, the location and the nature of the collection would demonstrate the importance and diversity of the palm leaf manuscript collections in Myanmar.
Catalogue from Wat Tongsi(opens in a new tab)
Preliminary cataloguing of the Wat Tongsi's manuscript collection: The monastic library at Wat Tong Si in the Kengtung area (Eastern Shan State, Myanmar), holds 14 large mulberry paper manuscripts, 49 small mulberry paper manuscripts, and 70 palm-leaf manuscripts. The significance of the manuscript collection may owe to the fact the monastery is located in a village established by cavalry units and elephants' mahouts working in pre- and colonial times for the Lord of Kengtung, all community members who were able to offer significant donations to the monastery.
Catalogue from Wat Papu(opens in a new tab)
Preliminary cataloguing of Wat Papu's manuscript collection: There are 94 mulberry paper manuscripts held at Wat Papu in the Mae Hong Son area (Northwest Thailand). The whole collection seems to have aggregated through donations of manuscripts made to one of the monastery's former abbotts from surrounding monasteries. The Tai Yai-language catalogue of manuscripts available at the monastery was made by Zare Saw of Kunhing (Shan State, Myanmar) in 2021. The collection features mostly Buddhist canonical literature as well as Buddha's life stories (Jatakas).
