Asian and African studies blog

The great Indian epics the Ramayana and Mahabharata were known throughout Southeast Asia, but it was the Ramayana that most profoundly influenced Malay literary tradition. One of the oldest Malay manuscripts in a British collection is a copy of the Hikayat Seri Rama in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, which bears the ownership inscription of Archbishop Laud dated 1633. The British Library holds a manuscript of Caritra Rama, 'The story of Rama', in romanised Malay, which was copied in Surabaya in 1812.

Caritra Rama, in romanised Malay with many Javanese elements, copied at Surabaya in February 1812. British Library, MSS Malay D 7, f. 5r (det.).

There are however also Malay versions of the Mahabharata, some of which probably entered Malay as abbreviated prose renditions of the Old Javanese Bhratayuddha. The earliest, Hikayat Perang Pandawa Jaya, ‘The tale of the war of the victorious Pandawa’, was composed some time between the late 14th and early 16th century, and is mentioned in the Bustan al-salatin of Nuruddin al-Raniri composed in Aceh in 1638 (Braginsky 2003: 143).

Opening pages of Hikayat Perang Pandawa Jaya, with double decorated frames in red, pink, black ink and reserved white. British Library, MSS Malay B.12, ff. 1v-2r 

Simple finialed black ink outlines enclose the colophon of Hikayat Perang Pandawa Jaya giving the date of copying as 22 Syaaban 1219 (26 November 1804), in the year ba, on Monday, and the name of the scribe as Muhammad Kasim. British Library, MSS Malay B 12, f. 117r.

An illuminated manuscript of Hikayat Perang Pandawa Jaya (MSS Malay B 12), with brightly decorated opening frames, was copied in 1804, probably in Penang, by Muhammad Kasim. In the following year, the same scribe is known to have copied an illuminated manuscript of Hikayat Muhammad Hanafiah (MSS Malay B 6) which is also in the British Library. The epic tale revolves around the war between the Pandawas and the Korawas, brought about by a fateful game of dice which the Korawas win by deceit, and is presented in three parts.

The second part of the work, entitled Hikayat Pandawa Jaya, ‘The tale of the victorious Pandawas’, tells the story of the Pandawas' victory in the great war, and this part is also contained in another manuscript in the British Library, MSS Malay B 4.  According to the colophon on f.90r, this manuscript was copied on 10 Rabiulawal 1220 AH (8 June 1805 AD) in the reign of Sultan Ahmad Tajuddin in Kota Setar Dar al-Aman. It was conventional practice in a number of Malay states to accompany the toponym with an honorific epithet in Arabic, such as Palembang Dar al-Salam, 'Abode of Peace', and  Perak Dar al-Ridwan 'Abode of Grace', but no other Malay state is known to have had as close an association with its epithet as Kedah had with Dar al-Aman, ‘Abode of Security’, to the extent that the term Dar al-Aman alone is often used to refer to the state.

Opening lines of Hikayat Pandawa Jaya, copied in Kedah, 1805. The visible diagonal brushstrokes on the page suggest that this is Chinese paper. British Library, MSS Malay B 4, f. 2v (det.).

A third Malay manuscript in the British Library related to the Mahabharata is Hikayat Maharaja Boma (MSS Malay C 8), a variant of the story better known as Hikayat Sang Boma or Hikayat Sang Samba. The five Pandawa brothers and their families feature in this tale (and indeed the monkey kings from the Ramayana also put in an appearance), but the main heroes are Kresna, the earthly incarnation of the god Bisnu (Sanskrit: Vishnu) and his father Basudewa (Sanskrit: Vasudeva), brother Baladewa and son Samba Prawira Jaya (Braginsky 2003: 152). Hikayat Sang Boma was probably composed in the 15th-16th centuries in one of the traditional centres of Javanese-Malay cultural contact.  At the start of this manuscript it is said that the story was originally in 'the Indian language' (bahasa Keling), and was then translated into Javanese, and finally rendered into Malay. According to the colophon and marginal notes, the manuscript was copied by Du'ad on 24 Zulkaidah 1219 (24 February 1805).

Opening pages of Hikayat Maharaja Boma, with the date of copying of 1219 (1804) inscribed vertically in the right-hand margin of the first page. British Library, MSS Malay C 8, ff. 1v-2r.

Malay tales based on the Mahabharata and Ramayana remained popular long after the coming of Islam. Vladimir Braginsky (2003: 147) sugggests however that the Hindu philosophical ideas which permeate the Sanskrit epics are barely evident, and instead ‘the Malays saw primarily absorbing stories about exemplary heroes displaying military valour and courteous behaviour’, as well as relishing the exquisite descriptions of incomparable beauty.  Still, the dichotomy of attempting to rationalise the older literary inheritance with Muslim beliefs and practice is a recurrent theme over the centuries. One approach taken in a number of Malay manuscripts now in the British Library collection is to place clearly visible moral warnings that the texts should be read ‘with a pinch of salt’ and should not be taken to heart.  Thus the copy of Hikayat Pandawa Jaya ends with a brief unfinished syair (poem) of which the first stanza reads: 'This is the story of the victorious Pandawas / whoever reads it, don't believe a word of it / it's full of hopeless lies / of glorious imaginary worlds' (Inilah hikayat Pandawa Jaya / siapa membaca jangan percaya / bohongnya banyak tiada berdaya / dunia kayangan sangatlah mulia). Du’ad, the scribe of the manuscript of Hikayat Maharaja Boma, has added the stern admonition ‘don’t believe this’ (jangan beriman) to every folio, as can also be seen in the left-hand margin above, and at the end of the story he added a more explicit caution.  The same lip-serving religious censorship device can be seen in another manuscript in the British Library copied by the same scribe (although here he spells his name Da'ut), of a Malay Panji story, Hikayat Cekel Waneng Pati (MSS Malay C 2). 

Closing verse in Hikayat Pandawa Jaya exhorting readers not to believe in the tale. British Library, MSS Malay B 4, f. 90r (det.).

The top right corner of each folio of Hikayat Maharaja Boma is labelled: 'don't believe this!' (jangan beriman). British Library, MSS Malay C 8, f. 10v (det.).

The disclaimer placed by the scribe Du'ad at the end of Hikayat Maharaja Boma: 'This writing is packed full of untruths, because it has been embellished over and over again by all the writers who have copied and recopied the text; whoever takes this Javanese story to heart is believing a pack of lies more numerous than stars in the sky or grains of sand on a beach, and his sins will pile up and multiply, so don’t be unaware or forgetful of this while reading these [undoubtedly] beautiful words, this is my warning! (Adapun khabar ini terlalulah amat dusta oleh ditambah2 oleh orang yang menyurat oleh sampai pada orang yang menyurat akhirnya ditambah barangsiapa ada menaruh iman seperti tersebut di dalam surat Jawa ini maka terlalulah amat dustanya tiada terbilang sebilang bintang di  langit dan sebilang kerisik di pantai demikianlah dosanya kanda berkanda dosa diperolehannya jangan tuan2 sebagian tiada ketahui akan dan lupa lalaikan pada tatkala membaca surat dan tatkala perkataan yang indah2 kalau [berlikha?] di dalamnya itulah perintahnya).  MSS Malay C 8, f. 64r

All the Malay manuscripts mentioned above how now been fully digitised and can be read on the British Library's Digitised Manuscripts site.

Further reading

V.I. Braginsky, The heritage of traditional Malay literature: a historical survey of genres, writings and literary views.  Leiden: KITLV, 2004, pp. 143-156.

A.T. Gallop, ‘Abode of peace’: the use of honorific epithets for place names in the Malay world. Cetusan minda sarjana: sastera dan budaya, penyelenggara Ampuan Haji Brahim bin Ampuan Haji Tengah. Bandar Seri Begawan: Dewan Bahasa dan Budaya Brunei, 2014; pp. 27-51.

R.O. Winstedt, A history of classical Malay literature.  Revised, edited and introduced by Y.A.Talib.  Kuala Lumpur: The Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1991; includes a lengthy summary of Hikayat Perang Pandawa Jaya and Hikayat Sang Boma on pp. 149-162.

Panji stories in Malay

A new edition of Hikayat Perang Pandawa Jaya, based on Royal Asiatic Society MS Raffles Malay 2, is currently in preparation by Liubov Goriaeva, to be published by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, Kuala Lumpur.

Annabel Teh Gallop, Lead Curator, Southeast Asia  

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In November 1714, three British merchants from the East India Company ship Borneo were granted permits to trade by the sultan of Banjar on the south coast of the island of Borneo, now known as Banjarmasin in present-day Indonesian Kalimantan. The issuing of trading permits was a common occurrence, but what was exceptional in this case was the form of the permit itself: a thin piece of gold stamped with the sultan’s seal, with a personalised inscription naming each of the three officers.

At this time the ruler of Banjar was Sultan Tahmidullah (r.1712-1747), and the presentation of the permits took place at his palace at Caytongee or Kayu Tangi, about a hundred miles upriver from the port of Banjarmasin. The occasion was described by Captain Daniel Beeckman in his travelogue, A voyage to the island of Borneo in the East-Indies, published in London in 1718:

‘He caus’d three Gold Plates to be made of the Form and Size here mark’d, of which he gave one to me, another to Mr. Swartz, and the third to Mr. Becher; and told us, that was a Token of the Friendship, and a Chop, or Grant of Trade, having the Stamp of his Great Seal on it; that on the producing it at our return, he would not only protect us, but grant us the liberty of Trade in any part of his Dominions; Then he wish’d us, in a hearty manner, a good Voyage, and a speedy Return. I have here inserted the Words that are on the Gold Chop, as also the English of them, as near as I can, viz. De ca Tawon Zeib, daen ca Boolon Dulcaidat, Eang Sultan Derre Negree Caytongee, dea Casse enee Chop pada anacooda Beeckman. That is, In the Year Zeib, and the Moon Dulcaidat, The Sultan of Caytongee gave this Chop to Captain Beeckman’ (Beeckman 1718: 110-111).

Daniel Beeckman, A voyage to and from the island of Borneo in the East-Indies (London, 1718). British Library, T 11938 4.

Hardly surprisingly, none of the original gold tokens is known to have survived. But tucked inside a manuscript volume of miscellanea in the British Library’s department of western manuscripts is a document with a tracing of the token granted to Bartholomew Swartz, supercargo of the Borneo. As part of the Harleian collection, this manuscript dates from before 1753, and was therefore probably drawn up not long after the return of the ship Borneo from the East Indies. The piece of paper is inscribed: 'The Contract with the Emperor of Borneo (in the East Indies). Mr. ... Swartz's Agent from the East India Comp. London. This was an agreement to settle & Trade or Commerce with full liberty to the Subjects of England or great Britain'. In the middle of the sheet of paper is a drawing of the token, which is labelled, 'This is on a gold plate, impressd. by the Emperor, almost as thinn as this paper, whereby it is plainly seen on the other side'.

Traced copy of the gold trading permit bearing the seal of Sultan Tahmidullah of Banjar, with a presentation inscription in Malay to Bartholomew Swartz dated 1714. British Library, Harley MS 6824, f. 194r.

The outline of the original gold plate has been traced with a sharp implement, and the inscription on the seal and the token copied out in black ink. The scored outline shows that the gold plate was rectangular on the three lower sides but rounded at the top, and measured 87 mm high by 48 mm wide. Impressed at the top of the token was the round seal of the sultan, measuring 45 mm in diameter with a triple-ruled outline, with an inscription in the middle and in a border around the edge.

This drawing is doubly significant, not only as a record of a rare seal impressed in gold, but also because it depicts the oldest Islamic seal known from Borneo. In Malay seals, the main inscription giving the name of the seal owner is invariably located in the centre, while the border houses a secondary inscription, often religious in character. However, in this seal, the only logical way of reading the inscription is to proceed from the border inwards to the centre: Sultan Tahmidullah ibn Sultan Tahirullah ibn // al-Malik[?] Allah, ‘Sultan Tahmidullah, son of Sultan Tahidullah, son of // al-Malikullah’. [It is probably significant that the only other Malay seal known where the inscription should be read from the border inwards is also from Banjar.]

Detail of the drawing of the gold sealed trading permit. British Library, Harley MS 6824, f. 194r.

Underneath the seal impression, the gold plate was inscribed in Malay in Jawi script with the date and the name of the recipient: Pada tahun zai pada bulan Zulkaidah hijrat [a]l-nabi seribu seratus enam tahun, Sultan Banjar mengasih cap kepada Batalomu Suwas, ‘In the year Zai, the month Zulkaidah, the year of the migration of the Prophet one thousand one hundred and six, the Sultan of Banjar gave this seal to Bartholomew Swartz’. Although the date on this copy is given as Zulkaidah 1106 (June/July 1695) it should, without doubt, read Zulkaidah 11[2]6 (November/December 1714), which accords exactly with the dates of the Borneo’s visit to Banjar.

No other reference is known to trading permits from the Malay archipelago in the form of gold tokens, and another East India Company ship, Dragon, which visited Banjarmasin in 1746 during the reign of Sultan Tahmidullah's son, Tamjidullah (r.1746-1756), received more conventional trading permits, written on paper in Malay in very stylish Jawi calligraphy, and bearing the sultan's seal stamped in red wax.

Trading agreement for pepper issued by the Sultan of Banjar to the East India Company, received on 24 October 1746: 'This is our royal decree to Mr Butler, Mr Stewart and Captain Kent; as your trading vessels sail in and out we agree that they will not be searched; you must not allow any nobles or notables to board your ship, or anyone at night, and during daytime only two or three merchants may board (at any one time); and we promise the Company to supply six thousand pikul of pepper, this is not negotiable, and each year whether two or three ships come, it will be [only] six thousand' (Bahwa ini titah kami kepada Mister Butel dan Mister Asdut serta Kapitan Kin jikalau ada perahu masuk atau perahu keluar tiada kami berikan diperiksa yang jenis perahu dagang dan lagi pula kalau raja2 atau orang besar2 hendak bermain ke kapal jangan dinaikkan atau orang henda naik pada malam melainkan orang berdagang dua tiga orang beroleh naik pada hari siang dan akan perjanjian kita dengan Kompeni memuat lada enam ribu pikul tiada kita mengubahkan tiap2 tahun jikalau kapal datang dua atau tiga enam ribu jua). British Library, IOR L/Mar/C/324, f. 65r.

Financial surety issued by the Sultan of Banjar, 1746: 'This is our surety issued to Mister Butler for the rials, valid only as far as Batavia; if Mister Butler does not return to Banjar our friendship with the East India Company will be revoked' (Bahwa ini surat kami akan Mister Butel mengganti rial itu sehingga ke Betawi saja, jikalau tiada kembali ke Banjar adalah Mister Butel menceraikan sahabat kami dengan Kompeni). British Library, IOR L/Mar/C/324, f. 64r.

Two red wax seals bearing the name Sultan Tamjidullah, both inscribed from the bottom up so that the word Allah is elevated to the position of honour at the top of the seal. British Library, IOR L/Mar/324, f. 64r (left) and f. 65r (right).

Further reading

A.T. Gallop & V. Porter, Lasting Impressions: Seals from the Islamic World. Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia, 2012.

A.T. Gallop, Elevatio in Malay diplomatics, Annales Islamologiques.  Dossier: Les conventions diplomatiques dans le monde musulman.  L’umma en partage (1258-1517), ed. Marie Favereau.  41 (2007), pp. 41-57.

Malay manuscripts from Borneo

With thanks to Richard Morel who discovered the two permits of 1746.

Annabel Teh Gallop, Lead Curator, Southeast Asia

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The name of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles (1781—1826) is best known today for his role in the founding of Singapore, and by a hotel there that bears only a nominal connection with him. By profession a colonial administrator, by inclination he was a passionate naturalist with broad interests in the humanities that first revealed themselves in his administration of Java (1811—15).

Portrait of Sir Stamford Raffles. British Library, Raffles MSS Eur D.742.14.6.8

In the East India Company he was a somewhat controversial figure, resulting in his being posted to the backwater of Fort Marlborough on the deeply unhealthy west coast of Sumatra (1818—24); here he indulged his hobbies, making substantial collections of naturalia and commissioning Chinese and French artists to illustrate the more spectacular of his finds. Tragically his huge collection was destroyed when packed up on the ship Fame, which in 1824 was to take him and his wife back to England to rejoin their single surviving daughter (in Sumatra Raffles had lost two naturalists and three of his children to fever!)

'Loss of the Fame, East Indiaman'. Engraved by T. Brown.  Published in Stationers Almanack for 1825. British Library, P411.

In the eight weeks until the next ship sailed, he commissioned the artists to remake 44 bird drawings, seven of animals and 27 of plants. These drawings (along with some from his first Oriental period) were preserved by the Raffles family until his indirect descendants, the Drake family, deposited them on permanent loan to the British Library in 1969. In 2007  the collection was purchased for the nation, at which point a significant proportion of them was exhibited in the Central Library, Liverpool and at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. The opportunity has now arisen to present a changing selection of these spectacular works in the Sir John Ritblat Treasures of the British Library Gallery, starting with three of the bird paintings – the work of a little-known French artist ‘J. Briois’, who was possibly recruited by Raffles in Calcutta. The following three studies are currently on view. 

Nicobar pigeon, Sumatra, Indonesia, around 1824. Attributed to J. Brios, c. 1824. Watercolour, bodycolour, pencil, gold and silver leaf and gum arabic on paper. British Library, NHD 47/38.

Female crested fireback,Sumatra, Indonesia, around 1824. Attributed to J. Brios, c. 1824. Watercolour, bodycolour, pencil, gold and silver leaf and gum arabic on paper. British Library, NHD 47/42.

Crested fireback, Sumatra, Indonesia, around 1824. Attributed to J. Brios, c. 1824. Watercolour, bodycolour, pencil, gold and silver leaf and gum arabic on paper. British Library, NHD 47/43.

The  Raffles Family Collection was purchased through the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Art Fund, Friends of the British Library, Friends of the National Libraries, and John Koh of Singapore.  The BL Shop has a selection of fine art prints, postcards and publications on the Raffles Collection; you can have your own print of the Crested Fireback! 

Further reading:

Memoir of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles

H.J. Noltie, Raffles’ Ark Redrawn: Natural History Drawings from the Collection of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles.  London: the British Library and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, in association with Bernard Quaritch, 2009.

Henry Noltie, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh

It has been just over two months since the LibCrowds platform was launched. In that time, volunteers have made over 13,000 contributions and completed over 4000 tasks. The first batches of data are currently being sorted and provisional figures look promising, with approximately 50% of cards being successfully matched against an appropriate OCLC WorldCat record. What this means in practice is that in two months our volunteers have already helped to create somewhere in the region of 2000 new electronic catalogue records, which will soon be available via Explore. This number is likely to rise even further as the data is sorted and some of the more ambiguous matches are confirmed.

For those that have already participated, or those that might be about to, we thought you might like to know the end-to-end process involved in turning your contributions into electronic catalogue records.

The back-end process involved in turning your contributions into new online catalogue records.

The first stage is to ask three volunteers to attempt to match an image of a catalogue card against records retrieved from the WorldCat database. So far, a very high proportion of volunteers have successfully selected accurate records. However, by asking three people to complete the same task, and looking for cases where at least two volunteers have selected the same record, we can provide a level of risk mitigation and be confident that the records being retrieved are correct. In cases where volunteers choose different records more thorough checks will be needed to verify which (if any) are correct. It is also important to identify those cards that don’t match a current WorldCat record, so no contributions are wasted.

Once a project is complete, a quality control process is performed by British Library staff. This includes spot checks by the relevant curators, investigation of any volunteer comments, normalisation of shelf marks and various other automated checks against the WorldCat database. The end product of this process is a list of British Library shelf marks and associated OCLC control numbers.

This list provides the input to a batch process that creates copies of the identified WorldCat records, adds the associated British Library shelf mark and then ingests these new catalogue records into the British Library’s main catalogue database, making them available via Explore.

The LibCrowds statistics page provides a range of charts representing current contribution data.

Each contribution is important in helping to build the British Library’s searchable online database. The current focus is on improving access to our Chinese and Indonesian collections and other collections are already being considered. However, no specific language skills are required to take part as cards generally include Romanised transcriptions.

Contributions to Convert-a-Card projects can be made from any desktop or mobile device.

The platform is being active developed, with recent updates including improved mobile optimisation, improved forum integration and the implementation of some ideas suggested by our volunteers. So, alongside the significant contributions to be made by participating in a project, there are plenty of other things for you to discover and explore over at LibCrowds. We look forward to seeing you there!

To stay up-to-date with recent developments read the LibCrowds blog, follow LibCrowds on Twitter or subscribe to the LibCrowds Newsletter.

For further information visit the LibCrowds Community.

Alex Mendes, Asian and African Studies

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There are many Burmese festivals throughout the year and most of them are related to Buddhism. The year begins with the month named Tagu (April), and ends with the month called Tabaung (March). The main festivals of Tagu are the Burmese New Year and the Thingyan water-throwing festival, which is held for four days in mid-April. The exact date and the precise time of the commencement and termination of Thingyan and New Year's Day are fixed through astrological calculations. Thingyan is a word derived from the Sanskrit sankranta meaning the end of the past year and the beginning of the new year. Many devout Buddhists initiate their sons and ordain them into the Buddhist order around the time of the water festival. Popular New Year activities include visiting monasteries with offerings for Buddhist monks to observe precepts, listening to dhamma talks and meditation. Another activity to usher in the New Year is the ceremonial bathing of Buddha images in scented water at homes or at pagodas.

Kason nyaung yei thun pwe (water pouring festival), British Library, Or.15021, ff. 4-6          

The water pouring festival (Kason nyaung yei thun pwe) is held in the second month of the Burmese calendar, Kason (May). The full moon day of Kason is very significant for Buddhist people, and is called ‘Buddha Day’, because four cardinal events happened on this day: Dipinkara Buddha foretold that the hermit Thumeda would be re-born as the Buddha, Gotama; the Buddha was born; Gotama Buddha attained Enlightenment at the foot of the Bodhi tree; and the Buddha passed into Nirvana. On the 14th waxing day of Kason, a day before the full moon, people carry water pots and go to the pagoda to pour water at the sacred Bodhi tree.

Sar pyan pwe, British Library, Or.15021, ff. 7-8                                                         

Nayun (June), the third month of the Burmese calendar, is when examinations are held for Buddhist monks in the recitation of Theravada Buddhist scriptures. Lay people bring various offerings including daily alms to the monks, who sit recitation tests on Buddha’s discourse. These examinations, in three levels, have been held since the days of the monarchy in Burma. On the full moon day of Nayun, the Buddha preached Mahasamaya sutta to human and celestial beings, and this day is therefore commemorated as ‘Mahasamaya Day’.

Waso festival, for the offering of sacred yellow robes, British Library, Or.15021, ff. 9-12.

The Buddhist Lent, or Wa, takes place every year over three months from July to October. During this period Buddhist monks abstain from travelling, and devote themselves to religious duties in their own monasteries. People offer alms and Waso robes to gain meritorious deeds. As Waso (July) is a sacred month, ordination and novitiation ceremonies take place at the monasteries.  Novitiation is an important family custom and is considered a great privilege, and is also a meritorious deed for the person who gives himself into the Buddha’s Order. Once boys have reached the age of seven they are admitted as novices. When ordination ceremonies take place there must be an assembly of at least five senior monks agreeing to sponsor the ordination. The Waso full moon day is a very sacred day for Buddhist as it was the day on which the embryo Buddha Siddhatta was conceived, and also the day of the Great Renunciation and of the Great Delivering of the First Sermon, Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta. The full moon day of Waso is called Dhammacakya day.

Maha Dok festival, British Library, Or.15021, ff. 13-15

Wagaung (August) is the month for the Mahā Dok festival (Alms-bowls festival), in which food is offered together with other requisites for monks. When the King of Kosala and all his people organised a ceremony for offering food to the Buddha and the Sanghas at the Jetavana Monastery, a man called Mahā Dok who was very poor and had never had a chance to do any deed of merit and his wife worked hard to save enough to offer food to a monk. Mahā Dok was very happy as the lot fell to him to offer alms to the Buddha.  He became a rich man, but spent his wealth in doing good deeds.  He was reborn in the celestial abode when his life ended.

Tawthalin (September) is the sixth month in Burmese calendar and the third month of the rainy season in Burma. The rain becomes less frequent, there is more sunshine and clearer skies, it becomes less windy and the surfaces of the rivers stay calm. Due to the favourable weather conditions, regatta festivals are traditionally held in this season. These regattas were not only occasions for royal pageantry but also for demonstrating the naval prowess of the armed forces. It remains one of the twelve monthly festivals in the Burmese calendar. The full moon day of Tawthalin is regarded as Kurudhamma or Pancasīla (five precepts) day.

The Bodhisatta, Dhanañjaya Korabya, king of Kururatha and his people observed the five precepts, Kurudhamma, and their country enjoyed good weather and good harvests, while the people lived peacefully and freed from diseases. King Kalinga of Dantapura's land, however, experienced drought and his people suffered from natural disasters. At Kalinga's request, King Dhanañjaya Korabya lent his state elephant, but the drought continued. Then King Kalinga found out about Kurudhamma which blessed the Bodhisatta and his people. After that he and his people practised the Kurudhamma, and the country of Dantapura became peace and prosperous too. British Library, Or. 4542B, ff. 147-152  

The Thadingyut festival takes place on the full moon day of Thadingyut (October) to mark the end of the Buddhist Lent, which begins in the middle of Waso and ends in the middle of Thadingyut. The Thadingyut festival is celebrated with lights to commemorate when the Buddha preached the Abhidhamma to his mother, who was reborn again in heaven and returned from Tavatimsa heaven to the earth on the full moon night of Thadingyut. To mark this Abhidhamma day, lavish offerings are made to monks, and people pay homage to express their gratitude to parents, teachers and elders.

Tazaungdaing festival, British Library, Or.15021, ff. 26-30

Tazaungmon (November) is the eighth month of the Burmese calendar.  One of the most common religious practices among Buddhists is merit making. When the Buddhist Lent ends monks are allowed to travel, and around this time many monks are in need of new robes. It is thus a special period for Buddhist people to do meritorious deeds, and people organise special offerings, Kathina, which begin on the first waning day of Thadingyut, the seventh month, and last till the full-moon day of the eighth month Tazaungmon. All the offerings including cash are hung on Padetha trees which are brought to the monastery. An especially meritorious offering is the mahakathina robe, and a robe-weaving contest is held at Shwedagon Pagoda on the 14th waxing day of Tazaungmon. In this contest many groups of young women participate in competitions and each group must spin, weave and stich together a set of robes within a certain time scale: they must begin on the evening of the eve of the full moon day of Tazaungmon and must finish before dawn on the full moon day. The full moon day of Tazaungmon is called Samaññaphala Day, and on this day the Buddha delivered Samaññaphala sutta, the second sutta in the Dighanikaya, to King Ajatasatta. The sutta reveals a culture of respecting ascetics.

In ancient times, Nat worship was held in Nadaw (December).  In the present day, literary contests are held in this month, and people pay homage and offer gifts to elder writers and poets.

In olden days Burmese kings held military parades in Pyatho (January), as well as horse races, polo matches, elephant competitions and martial sports. British Library, Or14551, ff. 12-13

On the full moon day of Pyatho (January) the Buddha addressed a sermon, Adittapariyāya sutta, to Uruvela Kassapa, Nadi Kassapa, Gaya Kassapa and a thousand of their followers. At the end of the sermon they became arhats. Therefore the full moon day of Pyatho is called Shin ta thon day. On the full moon day of Tabodwe (February), the Buddha gave a sermon called Ovāda Pātimokkha to 1250 disciples, and village people offer the products of their farms for alms in this month at the harvest festival.  Tabaung (March), the twelfth month of the Burmese year is a month of Paya pwes (pagoda festivals), as the festivals are held at the pagodas all over the country.  Tabaung festival is marked by the building of sand stupas.  

Further reading

Khin Myo Chit. Flowers and festivals round the Myanmar year. Yangon: Sarpaylawka, 2002.

Khin Maung Nyunt. Myanmar traditional monthly festivals. Yangon: Inwa, 2005.
 
San San May, Curator for Burmese

Related articles

The Life of the Buddha in Thai manuscript art

Ten Birth Tales of the Buddha (IO Pali 207)

Over the last couple of years I have been tweeting the many notifications that I have received on users' experiences of archives and libraries. Even if an institution has its own website, readers' impressions can be very helpful. Twitter, however, has limitations so far as archiving data is concerned so I thought it could be useful to publish a list of the references I have collected so far. If readers have more uptodate information or know of additional archives and libraries, please let me know and it can be added in.

A travelling scholar monk carrrying a load of Buddhist scrolls. From Cave 17, Mogao, near Dunhuang, Gansu province, China. 10th century AD (Stein collection Ch. 00380, BM 1919,0101,0.168) © Trustees of the British Museum

Most of these reviews were published during the last two years and came from the following sources:

• Archives Made Easy. An on-line guide to archives around the globe which aims to make unrewarding research trips a thing of the past.
• Dissertation Reviews: Fresh from the Archives. Reviews of and guides to archives, libraries, databases, and other collections.
• HAZINE - a guide to researching the middle east and beyond. Focussing primarily on resources on the Ottoman Empire, HAZINE has series on both archives and libraries.

For Middle Eastern studies, Evyn Kropf, University of Michigan Library, gives an excellent general overview and further references in her Manuscript Collection Research Guides and Online collections of digitized Islamic manuscripts.

For Chinese studies, Bick-har Yeung, Former East Asian Librarian, University of Melbourne, reported on visits in 2014 to major Chinese research collections in the UK, Paris and Singapore, in East Asian Library Resources Group of Australia Newsletter 65 (2015).

The following reviews are listed here by country:

Afghanistan

• National Archives of Afghanistan (Archif-e Milli), Kabul

Azerbaijan                

• Institute of Manuscripts named for Mohammad Fuzuli, Baku

Bosnia & Herzegovina      

• Bosniak Institute (Bošnjački institut – Fondacija Adila Zulfikarpašića), Sarajevo
• Gazi Husrev-Begova Biblioteka, Sarajevo
• Institute for Oriental Studies in Sarajevo (Orijentalni institut u Sarajevu)

Bulgaria       

• St. Cyril and Methodius National Library of Bulgaria (Natsionalna Biblioteka Sv Sv Kiril i Metodiy), Sofia

Cambodia    

• Bophana Audio Visual Archives, Phnom Penh
• National Archives of Cambodia, Phnom Penh
• Research Library of the Center for Khmer Studies, Siem Reap

China            

• Guangdong Provincial Archives and the Guangzhou Municipal Archives
• Inner Mongolia Regional Archives, Hohhot
• Qiaopi Museum, Shantou, Guangdong
• Shandong Provincial Archives, Jinan, Shandong
• Shanghai Municipal Archives
• Suzhou (Sukun) Kunqu Company Archive
• Tianjin Municipal Archives
• Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Museum, Urumqi
• Zhangzhou Municipal Archives, Zhangzhou, Fujian Province.

Egypt             

• Dar al-Kutub Manuscript Collections, Cairo
• Dar al-Mahfuzat al-ʿUmumiyya, Cairo

Georgia        

• Central Historical Archive, Tbilisi

Germany       

• Enzkreis District Archive (Kreisarchiv Enzkreis), Pforzheim

Greece          

• The Historical Archive of Macedonia, Thessaloniki

India             

• A review of Government Oriental Manuscripts Library, Chennai
• A review of the Rampur Raza Library and Archives
• ITC Sangeet Research Academy, Calcutta
• Alkazi Collection of Photography, New Delhi
• Assam State Archives, Guwahati
• Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune,
• Deccan College, Pune
• Four Archives in Mizoram, India
• Historical Archives of Goa, Panaji
• Institute Français de Pondichéry, Pondicherry
• Twenty Libraries in Delhi You've Never Visited

Indonesia    

• National Archives of the Republic of Indonesia, Jakarta

Iran               

• Golestan Palace Library and Archive, Tehran
• Malek National Library and Museum (Ketābkhāna va mūza-ye melli-ye Malek), Tehran
• National Archives and Library of Iran (Sazman-e Asnad va Ketabkhaneh-ye Melli-ye Iran), Tehran

Ireland          

• Chester Beatty Library, Dublin

Israel            

• Archives of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Jerusalem
• Central Zionist Archive, Jerusalem

Japan            

• Archive of Materials Related to the Former Colonies, Takushoku University, Hachiōji
• Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia Library, University of Tokyo
• Institute of Economic Research Library, Hitotsubashi University, Kunitachi
• Iwase Bunko Library, Nishio City
• Meiji Shinbun Zasshi Bunko,Tokyo
• National Archives of Japan, Tokyo
• National Institute for Defense Studies, Ministry of Defense, Tokyo
• School for International Studies Library, University of Osaka
• The Northern Studies Collection, Hokkaidō University, Sapporo
• Tokyo University Historiographical Institute

Jordan           

• Museum of Textbooks or “Matḥaf al-Kitāb al-Madrasī”, Amman

Kazakhstan  

• Archive of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Almaty
• Central State Archive of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Almaty

Mongolia     

• National Central Archives, Ulaanbaatar

Morocco

• Archives du Maroc, Rabat

Netherlands

• Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie), National Archives, The Hague
• Leiden University

Pakistan       

• Ganj Bakhsh Library, Iran-Pakistan Institute of Persian Studies, Islamabad       
• Sharfabad Bedil Library, Karachi

South Korea 

• National Library of Korea, Seoul

Spain            

• Archivo General de Simancas, Simancas

Taiwan         

• Guomindang Party Archives, Taipei
• National Taiwan Library, Taipei
• Tainan Chang Jung Senior High School, Museum of Church History, Tainan
• Taiwan Historica, Nantou

Turkey           

• İslam Araştırmaları Merkezi, Istanbul
• Ottoman Archives of the Prime Minister’s Office Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi, Istanbul
• Süleymaniye Library (Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi), Istanbul
• Topkapı Palace Museum (Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi), Istanbul
• Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay, formerly Hilâl-i Ahmer), Ankara
• Turkish Republican Archive (Cumhuriyet Arşivi), Ankara

UK                  

• China Poster Collection, University of Westminster, London
• John Rylands Library, University of Manchester
• National Archives, London
• Persian manuscript archives in the UK

USA                

• Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection, University of Nebraska, Omaha
• Tahrir Documents, Department of Special Collections at the Charles E. Young Research Library at UCLA, Los Angeles

Uzbekistan

• A review of the al-Beruni Institute for Oriental Studies, Tashkent

Ursula Sims-Williams, Asian and African Studies

In the Thai manuscript painting tradition, Gautama Buddha was widely represented in scenes of the events of his previous lives, known as the Jatakas. Special importance was often given to his last ten existences before he was re-born as Siddharta Gautama. This Thai manuscript (IO Pali 207) dates from the 18th century and is a fine example of how small collections of Buddhist texts were combined with illustrations from the last Ten Birth Tales of the Buddha in folding book form.

Given to the India Office in 1825, this is perhaps the earliest acquired Thai manuscript in a British collection. A note at the end of the manuscript states that it was “Presented by Ltt Coll Clifford by the hands of W Wigram Esqe, 9th Dec 1825”. Lt. Col. Miller Clifford served in the British Army during a long career beginning in the West Indies in 1794. In 1824 he was with the 89th Regiment of Foot in the first Burma war, which was where he must have acquired this fine Thai manuscript. Wigram was a director of the East India Company.

Scenes from the Suvannasama Jataka, symbolising the virtue of loving kindness. It tells the story of Suvannasama who looked after his parents after a poisonous snake caused them to lose their sight. While fetching water for his parents, the king of Benares was hunting nearby and accidentally killed Suvannasama. His parents pleaded with the gods to restore his life, and due to his extraordinary merit he came indeed back to life and the king was forgiven. The parents also regained their eyesight. British Library, IO Pali 207, f. 6

The illustrations in this manuscript are related to the main part of its text, the Mahabuddhaguna, which explains the ten Great Perfections of a Buddha. The Ten Birth Tales are symbolic representations of these Great Perfections. In addition to this text, which covers 37 folios, the book contains other selected short extracts from the Tipitaka.

Scenes from the Candakumara birth tale, which stands for the perfection of forbearance, show a ritual plotted by evil court Brahmins to sacrifice Candakumara by burning him on a pyre, but Sakka (Indra) descends from heaven to interrupt the ritual and to destroy the evil Brahmins. British Library, IO Pali 207, f. 14

The Ten Birth Tales of the Buddha are well-known as Thotsachat or Sipchat  in Thailand. The last of them, called the Great Birth Tale (Mahachat) is the most important and best known. Its proper name, Vessantara Jataka, is after the name of its hero, Prince Vessantara. Its narrative embodies the greatest of all Buddhist virtues, that of giving or charity. Re-telling and paying attention to recitations of the Great Birth Tale are regarded as acts of  merit-making, and its recitation by monks is usually the occasion for a great celebration that lasts a full day and night, or even several days.

Detail from the Vessantara Jataka, which symbolises the great virtue of charity. The Brahmin Jujaka, who asked Prince Vessantara to give him his children as servants for his wife, drives the two children away violently. Remarkable in this painting is the defensive gesture of the child who is trying to protect the other sibling from being hit. In the end, through the intervention of the gods, the children are re-united with their parents and grandparents. British Library, IO Pali 207, f. 20

The text in this book was written in Khom (Khmer) script, but in the Pali language. Altogether there are thirty paired illustrations in the late Ayutthaya painting style, which make this book a rare treasure of Thai manuscript painting. The paintings are simply composed, but the artist’s command of line and form, and composition and colour, are all exemplary. The first twenty pairs of paintings illustrate the last Ten Birth Tales, and the remaining ten paired paintings depict gods and heavenly beings, including Sakka (Indra) and Brahma, as well as scenes from a Buddhist funeral.

Depictions of Brahma (left) and Sakka (right), both kneeling down in a respectful position. The gods repeatedly helped Gautama Buddha in his former incarnations that are retold in the Jatakas. British Library, IO Pali 207, f. 27

The paper of this book was made from the bark of the Khoi tree (Streblus asper), a plant in the family of mulberry trees. It is of a dull cream colour, and the writing was done with black and red China ink and a bamboo pen. Thai manuscript painters at that time had only a limited range of colours made from locally available natural materials. Red and yellow ochre, as well as white were obtained from plants and minerals (gamboges, huntite, vermilion, red lead). Black was produced from carbon (soot) or crushed charcoal. Greens and blues were mostly produced from vegetable matter (for example Indigofera) or minerals (copper, emerald, kaolin). Malachite and ultramarine were imported to produce brighter green and blue shades. Gold paint, usually a mixture of gold with lead, mercury, copper, and other minerals, was used in this manuscript to enhance the appearance of the human and heavenly figures.  

This manuscript, IO Pali 207, has been fully digitised and can be viewed on the Library’s Digitised Manuscripts page by clicking here.

References

Ginsburg, Henry: Thai art and culture. Historic manuscripts from Western Collections. London : British Library, 2000
Ginsburg, Henry: Thai manuscript painting. London : British Library, 1989
Jo-Fan Huang: A technical examination of 7 Thai Manuscripts in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries.

Jana Igunma, Henry Ginsburg Curator for Thai, Lao and Cambodian

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28 Buddhas

The British Library holds about 10,000 printed books in Indonesian, from early 19th century mission imprints through to contemporary research-level publications. Though not as comprehensive as the collections at the National Library of Indonesia or in Dutch, American and Australian libraries, the British Library nonetheless holds some rare and important Indonesian titles, ranging from educational publications in Malay printed in Batavia in the late 19th century to early works of modern Indonesian literature, with a particular strength in the social sciences – law, politics, economics – from the 1950s and 1960s.


Indonesian literary works from the 1960s and 1970s in the British Library.

Since 1982 Indonesian publications have been catalogued by computer and can be searched on the British Library’s online catalogue ExploreBL. Before that date, books were catalogued on cards, hand-typed by curators, and this card catalogue of about 4,000 earlier Indonesian titles has only been accessible in London, in the Asian and African Studies Reading Room in the British Library.


An Indonesian catalogue card, with the British Library shelfmark, 14650.dd.11, in the top right corner.

In order to widen access to this and other such valuable collections, the BL has developed LibCrowds, a platform for hosting experimental crowdsourcing projects. The first project series is Convert-a-Card, which contains projects for the retroconversion of the Indonesian and Chinese card catalogues into electronic records, in order to make them available to a worldwide audience via ExploreBL. LibCrowds was launched in June 2015, and since then, one of the three drawers of Indonesian cards has been successfully tackled by contributors from all over the world, with a 50% hit-rate in which the catalogue card has been successfully matched with an electronic catalogue record for the same Indonesian book sourced from another library. The British Library shelfmark, shown in the top-right corner of the card, is then added by the contributor to the electronic record.

For a Flickr video to see how Convert-a-Card works, click here.

The third drawer of Indonesian catalogue cards has just been released, and the site also contains a simple three-step tutorial to participating in Convert-a-Card. If you would like to help us to make the contents of our Indonesian collection electronically available, please click here!


Indonesian publications on law, politics and international relations from the 1960s.

For more information, visit the LibCrowds Community, or email: [email protected]
Twitter https://twitter.com/LibCrowds

Annabel Gallop, Lead Curator, Southeast Asia

With thanks to Alex Mendes and Nora McGregor for developing LibCrowds

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Introducing LibCrowds: a crowdsourcing platform aimed at enhancing access to British Library collections

Panji stories in Malay