Gilt Burmese Buddhist Kammavaca Manuscript Group

KONBAUNG DYNASTY, 18TH-19TH CENTURY A.D.

11 1/2 - 23 1/2 in. (1.15 kg total, 29-56.5 cm).

Written in Pali in Burmese square script on gilded, lacquered and numbered palm leaves; each leaf is double-sided with the exception of one cover leaf which displays interlaced geometric panels populated with female figures, dragonesques and birds to one face; accompanied by an ornately decorated sword-shaped 'pointer', also gilded, possibly not belonging. [9, No Reserve]

Provenance

London collection since the 1980s.
Property of a Canadian family.

Footnotes

Kammavaca is a Pali term describing an assemblage of passages from the Tipitaka (the Theravada Buddhist canon) relating to ordination, the bestowing of robes and other rituals of monastic life. The texts typically contain religious instructions for monks.
The piercings in the leaves are functional; each leaf was placed over a skewer (likely bamboo) when read.

CONDITION

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LOT 2122