A BURMESE PALM-LEAF MANUSCRIPT

19th / 20th Century

The pages decorated with gilt-painted edges and housed between gilt-lacquered wood covers, the text written in Pali script,

50.3cm long

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PROVENANCE:

Collection of Prospect Burma, UK.

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The use of palm leaves as a medium for manuscripts has a long tradition, predating the use of paper by centuries. Rectangular, dried, cut and smoked Palmyra palm leaves, or peisa, were used for historical, literary and religious texts. Manuscripts were stored in monastic and royal libraries, but with the advent of printed texts in the 19th century the production and quality of manuscripts such as these declined.

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