The films hold mostly photographs of the Theravada Buddhist world of Laos and Luang Prabang, taken by monks or Buddhist laypeople since the 1850s, with a small number of images that are reproductions of earlier prints or paintings. A small number of texts, certificates, or documents are also present. The subject matter includes images of Buddha statues, Buddhist ceremonies, people’s festivals, landscape/architecture, monastery/architecture, meetings/conferences, group portraits of laypeople with and without monks, group and individual portraits of monks, meditation images, pictures relating to the royal court, and a large number of portraits of Phra Khamchan Virachitto as well as rich travel material (pilgrimages and visits of the Lao diaspora after the Pathet Lao revolution). The photographs were collected while the contributor lived as a Buddhist monk and abbot at Vat Saen Sukharam, Luang Prabang.
Scans.
1196 negatives and transparencies.
Original material consists of: silver gelatine film negatives, chromogenic negatives, chromogenic transparencies.
