Palm leaf manuscript, Kammavācā

Item — Box: custom palm leaf ms box

Identifier: 004-02-006

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Southeast Asian Studies scholar Trent Walker identified the Palm leaf manuscript as written in Pali, the liturgical language of Theravāda Buddhism, using Tham Lanna script from Northern Thailand. Known as Kammavācā, the manuscript is a set of related texts taken from the Theravāda Buddhist canon, the Tipitaka. Texts in Kammavācā provide scripts for conducting monastic rituals that include confession, ordination, and bestowal of robes.

Some palm leaves are fragmented due to physical damage sustained by the Palm leaf manuscript, although it is unknown if texts recorded on these leaves are incomplete. The manuscript also contains examples of texts incised into palm leaf, including incisions that have been applied over with ink and others that have not.

Dates

c. 1800-1900

Biographical / Historical

The Palm leaf manuscript consists of handwritten texts that utilize palm leaf as a writing surface. Texts may be incised into palm leaf using a stylus, written using ink, or using a combined method of applying ink over incisions. Inscribed palm leaves are typically punctured with one or more holes, strung through with thread, and held between two wooden boards.

The practice of hand-writing texts onto palm leaf precedes the introduction of mass-production printing methods to South and Southeast Asia in the 19th century. Alongside the composition of original texts, manuscripts are commonly reproduced and copied out onto new palm leaves, whether to replace a deteriorating manuscript or to create multiple copies of an existing manuscript regardless of its physical condition.

Palm leaf manuscripts preserve and transmit local and religious knowledge that is reflective of their context of origin. When produced to document literary, folkloric, scientific, or philosophical texts, palm leaf manuscripts act as cultural and historic records of a local context. As sacred texts, palm leaf manuscripts’ production and reproduction facilitate a range of ceremonial and everyday religious practices, enabling practitioners to conduct recitative rituals, textual study, and other forms of worship.