One lacquered leaf of a kammavaca Buddhist Manuscript

Museum number

1925.1.2

Object

One lacquered leaf of a kammavaca Buddhist Manuscript

Description

A rectangular sheet of lacquered fabric/paper. Inscribed with black text on a gold and red ground. Burmese, 19th cent. Part of a set of three leaves of a Burmese Manuscript. A Kammawasa (Kammavaca/Kammawaza) Buddhist text which are assemblages of passages from the Tipitaka (the Theravada Buddhist canon). They are usually donated as part of a monk's ordination ceremony or as part of the ritual entering monastic life that young boys go through. They are often made of lacquer on a substrate of metal, palm leaf, cloth or even sometimes ivory and are gilded. This is standard type of manuscript done in red, black and gold. It is written in the Pali language and the particular type of script is called Magyizi (meaning Tamarind Seed). It is a very difficult script to read and requires special training and very few people can still read it. The text itself is always standard and is taken from the Vinaya Pitaka. This addresses the rules governing monastic life and behaviour. It dates to probably the late 19th Century or Early 20th Century. There are only three leaves which means it is unlikely to be complete and due to their nice appearance many of these were split up and sold to tourists and collectors visiting Burma and South East Asia. Alexandra Green (S. P. Shaw Curator for Southeast Asia, British Museum)

On display?

No

Further description

Simple name

Manuscript