The temple keeps the sizeable collection in several wooden and glass cabinets in a dedicated manuscript room, which is part of the museum on the premises of the temple. A number of manuscripts are also kept on display in glass cabinets in the courtyard. The majority of texts were kept in labelled bundles, although one cabinet held some very old, fragmented, or out-of-order texts which we did our best to work through also. The majority of the collection is in Mon or Pāli, although the temple has one cabinet full of Thai-language manuscripts. The majority of subject material is religious, including texts of the Abhidhamma, various Jātakas, vinaya, and all the usual Pāli and Mon-language commentaries used in teaching monks. Also included were texts on medical treatment, works of literature, a few on history and horoscopology. We also found a few leaves in Lanna script which apparently came from a now defunct nearby settlement of Lanna war captives. The majority of illuminated texts were in the Pāli language in the Mon script, either of the Abhidhamma or of the Phra Malai story, although a few were in the Khom script. One Abhidhamma text was actually in Mon. The illustrations in these texts may or may not be connected with the surrounding text.
Extent: 169 manuscripts.
Custodial history: I include a generalized description for all four sites, since their stories are basically the same. Most of the texts appear to have been created in what is now Thailand, although a few texts may have either come from Burma or have been written by monks from Burma. Handwriting styles and the shape of certain letters – especially ṅa ṭa ṭha ra and ḷa differ markedly in the Thai Mon hand. Community elders also spoke of some texts having come from Burma, but agreed that the majority would have been created in Thailand itself. Although the colophons of some texts record the names of donors—usually either monks, or sometimes married couples—and may even name the scribe, the understanding of the time was that the texts existed in general circulation and so were neither the creation, nor the property, of any one person in the sense of the European “author.” A few manuscripts, and even the books from the Pak Lat press, say something like, “this is the original of Venerable X,” typically the abbot of a temple. Today, no-one reads the manuscripts, and the rooms in which they are kept are generally unvisited. Previously, however, monks and possibly some lay people would have used them somewhat like books, although they often unstrung them in the process—hence the bundles of scattered and random leaves which every temple had. Manuscripts also seemed to been lent and borrowed across temples. Manuscripts tended to be recopied over time, at least if there was an interested readership. We found many of the exact same texts—especially of the Abhidhamma or rules of the vinaya—repeatedly across temples since they would have been a suitable donation to a monk being ordained. At Wat Pom and Wat Koh, we found several “study bundles,” which contained nearly identical individual, unconnected chapters of various texts, apparently to help monks learn or possibly prepare for texts. It seems that there were texts held in a common library, while individual monks may have been given individual copies, sometimes marked with their names, although at this point, all the manuscripts are held in common.
Arrangement: Here we found the majority of palm leaf manuscripts in clean, new bundles, over which an outer palmleaf wrapper complete with titles of contents and a number system indicating a number of the bundle—by cabinet, not overall collection—and then a sub-number within each bundle. These were in pen, in Thai, and the actual palm leaves had also been marked with these numbers. Although useful for the Thais who did the cataloguing, this practice is not ideal since there are currently no Thai scholars literate in Mon, nor can most Thai Mons themselves read Mon. The only conceivable readers will be Burma Mons, who mostly cannot read Thai. In many cases, the Thai-language bundle tag provided a title to a text that was otherwise lacked a colophon, while at other times, the Mon titles on the colophons did not quite match the Thai description. The manuscripts held in the glass display cases—including the majority of illuminated manuscripts—were not part of that system. We did not put tags or labels on any of the bundles marked under the Thai system, nor did we add anything to the manuscripts in the display cases. I did, however, sort and tag the bundles in the “discard” collection kept at the bottom of one of the cabinets.
Original institution reference: n/a.
