The collection holds mostly photographs of the Theravada Buddhist world of Laos and Luang Prabang, taken by monks or Buddhist laypeople from 1910 to the 1987. A large number of photographs of Phra Khamfan Silasangvaro are present. Further subject matter includes images of Buddha statues and reproductions of paintings depicting Buddha’s life, 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, travel material (including pilgrimages to Burma and India), and images related to the culture/tradition of Laos. There are also rare documents of visits of the Buddhist monks of Luang Prabang to the “Liberated Zone” and the north-eastern provinces of Laos during the Civil War. The photographs were collected while the main contributor lived as a Buddhist monk and abbot at Vat Suvanna Khili, Luang Prabang.
1175 items. Scans and digital photography.
Original material consists of: silver gelatine DOP prints (some hand coloured), chromogenic prints, cyanotypes, monochrome halftone prints, colour halftone prints, original paintings, texts/documents, other/unknown. Some prints may be reproductions of earlier images.
Annotations and inscriptions: Lao, Pali (Tham script), French, Khmer, Thai.
