Dear Ole,
That is a terrible story about the Mahaanidessa. I once found
a very short (physically short -- only 4 inches long)
manuscript in a shop in Laos (down the street from the
Bibliotheque Nationale and across from Wat Ong Teu). I openned
the manuscript and as struck how the sentences kept starting
and ending abruptly. It looked as if parts had been cut. It as
definately a kammavaca ms., but much as missing. I asked the
shopkeeper why she was selling a ms. and how it had been
damaged. She replied, "Baw hoo" (I don't know). Then she asked
if I wanted anymore mss. I said that I would like to see all
the mss. she had. She brought out four mss. identical to the
one on display. She had cut one ms. into five pieces so that
she could make a profit selling five mss. instead of just
one!! I reassembled these five, copied them, and gave them to
the preservation department at the BN in Vientiane. I told the
BN staff to watch this shop, but a member of the BN staff
might have been the person ho originally sold her the hole
intact mss.!
Best for a happy holiday and better new year,
justin
---- Original message ----
>Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2005 09:54:36 +0100
>From: "Ole Holten Pind" <oleholtenpind@...>
>Subject: SV: [palistudy] sundry
>To: <palistudy@yahoogroups.com>
>
>Dear Justin and Eisel,
>
>I am horrified. I was not aware of the American involvement
with the Khmer
>Rouge. Stealing images, sculptures etc. is an international
and lucrative
>business. I don't know much about pilfering valuable ms.s
from Buddhist
>monastic libraries, but it seems to be organised by dealers
too. Here in
>Copenhagen of all places I once found in a well-known shop
selling "exotica"
>a beatifull copy of the Mahaaniddesa dated 1824, a fascicle
of the Jataka at
>least 250 years old and a lot more. I later found out that
they had been
>stolen from Sinhalese monastic libraries by greedy monks with
the assistance
>of antique dealers.
>
>Best
>Ole
>
>
>
>I was at the Norton Simon last week. They have a few pieces
including the
>Harihara and several other significant pieces.
>It is just not a large collection compared to the South Asian
collection
>there which is massive. I guess it matters what you count as
a big
>collection. Some beautiful and sacred pieces.
>Too bad one can't offer flowers, oil, and incense in the museum.
>
>The Americans, the French, the British, the Germans, the
Japanese should
>return everything. It wouldn't solve much I imagine. Chinese,
Malaysian and
>Thai business people would steal it again:) I recently spoke
(April 2005) at
>the seminar for the King of Siam Art Exhibition which is the
largest
>traveling exhibition of Siamese Art in history. Very nice
show. It took 8
>years to arrange (I was not part of this
>phase) because the Ministry of Fine Arts in Thailand wanted
to keep most
>pieces in the basement of the museum. Most are never seen and
are not
>returned to temples either. There is internal "stealing" as
well. Sadly an
>old story.
>
>I wrote a 250 page thesis when I was 19 years old on the American
>involvement with the Khmer Rouge and the U.S. bombing which
was one of the
>main contributing factors to their ability to rise to power
and rule.
>Americans acting badly is an old story. Stealing images is
the least of the
>problem. The sad thing is that every country that develops
power needs or
>think it needs to defend that power and thus in that defense
there is
>offense and everyone loses. An old story. I have grown less
angry in my old
>age or perhaps just more depressed:)
>
>Best:)
>justin
>
>
>
>
>
>------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
--------------------~-->
>Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo!
your home page
>http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/GP4qlB/TM
>--------------------------------------------------------------------~->
>
>
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
______________
Dr. Justin McDaniel
Dept. of Religious Studies
2617 Humanities Building
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
909-827-4530
justinm@...