Author Description

The manuscripts collections of Fragile Palm Leaves Foundation are a precious resource for the study of the Buddhist literary and ritual culture of Southeast Asia. The present volumes are the first in a Series of catalogues of Burmese-script palm-leaf manuscripts in the Pali and Burmese languages. The reasons for the large production of manuscripts in the mid-nineteenth century are not clear at present. Certainly, older manuscripts deteriorated, and eventually succumbed to the forces of impermanence. Many would have been lost in the fires that ravaged the wooden monasteries, and other would have been destroyed in the conflagrations of war. It was copying and recopying that preserved ancient works by passing them down to future generations.