Buddhism Illuminated: Manuscript Art from South-East Asia

285 Pages·2018·71.1 MB·English

by  San San May

Buddhism Illuminated
The Buddha in meditation posture, or dhyana mudra, illustrated in an artists’ manual. Folding book from
central Thailand, nineteeth century. British Library, Or 14229, f.1
San San May and Jana Igunma
Buddhism Illuminated
Manuscript Art from Southeast Asia
University of Washington Press Seattle
In memory of Henry David Ginsburg
Published in the United States of America by University of Washington Press
www.washington.edu/uwpress
ISBN 9780295743783
Text copyright © San San May and Jana Igunma 2018
Images copyright © The British Library Board 2018
Designed by Maggi Smith, Sixism
Printed in Hong Kong by Great Wall Printing Co.
All images are from the collection of the British Library unless stated otherwise in the captions.
Note on transliteration and names
Buddhist terms are spelled in their Pali form. Many Pali terms used in the study
of Buddhism in Southeast Asia have now entered the English language or are
generally well-known. Conventional spellings have thus been retained in this
book, for example for Dhamma and Sangha. Since there are no universally
accepted standards for the Romanisation of Southeast Asian alphabets, we
followed the standards of the Library of Congress, also used in the British
Library’s catalogues. However, we faced the dilemma that many less familiar
Pali terms are spelled differently in different Southeast Asian languages,
subsequently leading to confusion about diacritics in the Romanised form. For
this reason we have decided to abandon the diacritics used in the Library of
Congress Romanisation standards. Our hope is that this makes the book easier
for the general reader to read while still enabling the scholarly reader to identify
the term in its original form.
Generally we have retained the best known geographical names in the
region. We have used the name Thailand and the adjective Thai to refer to the
country generally throughout history, although for limited periods of time Siam
was the official name of the country and parts of other countries. For Myanmar
we have used the name Burma and the adjective Burmese to refer generally to
the country throughout its history.
Contents
Preface
1
CHAPTER
Introduction
2
CHAPTER
Buddha – The Enlightened One
3
CHAPTER
Dhamma – The Righteous Way
4
CHAPTER
Sangha – The Monastic Community
5
CHAPTER
Kamma – Cause and Effect
6
CHAPTER
Punna – Making Merit in Everyday Life
1
APPENDIX
List of the 28 Buddhas of the past
2
APPENDIX
Symbols on the Buddha’s footprint
3
APPENDIX
Overview of the Tipitaka
GLOSSARY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
Preface
The British Library holds some of the finest collections of Southeast Asian
manuscripts in the world. Buddhism is the focus of a large number of
manuscripts from mainland Southeast Asia, many with magnificent illustrations.
One former curator at the British Library who dedicated four decades of his life
to the research of Buddhist manuscript art and literature was Dr Henry David
Ginsburg; it is his outstanding contribution to the study of Southeast Asian
manuscripts that we wish to honour with this book. His legacy facilitated our
research and made the compilation of this book possible, and we are pleased and
honoured to offer this publication to the general public and the scholarly
community. We hope that it will further the study of Southeast Asian
manuscripts and contribute to a better understanding of Buddhist art and culture
in Southeast Asia. It has been a privilege to explore the work of skilled and
visionary artists whose wonderful manuscript illustrations, like magic windows,
allow us to look back in time.
Due to the nature of the British Library’s manuscript collections, the focus of
this book is on manuscripts from the Burmese (Myanmar) and Thai traditions.
However, this does not mean that the manuscripts from other Southeast Asian
cultures are less valuable or important. Wherever possible, we have tried to
include a particularly fine example of the Shan, Lao and Cambodian traditions.
Publication of this book has been made possible by the Ginsburg Legacy,
presented to the British Library following the untimely death of Henry D.
Ginsburg (1940–2007). We would like to express our gratitude to Titi Halle,
Executor of the Estate of Henry D. Ginsburg, for all her support. We are also
greatly indebted to our colleagues at the British Library, including Annabel Teh
Gallop, Robert Davies, Sud Chonchirdsin and Lydia Seager, for their tireless
support and encouragement. We would also like sincerely to thank
photographers Elizabeth Hunter, Antony Grant and Alex White, who often made
the impossible possible in terms of manuscript digitisation. We are especially
grateful to our copy editor Catherine Bradley and designer Maggi Smith for their
indispensable support in the production process of this book. Their meticulous
professionalism is greatly appreciated.
Others who lent their invaluable advice were Yohei Shimizu, Maria Kekki
and Justin McDaniel. We never had the chance adequately to thank Toshiya