Dear Ole,
I am part of a group trying to do this with the Library of
Congress in the US. Harald Hundius, Khongdeaune Nettavong, and
David Wharton in Laos have been also working on this problem
in Laos (I am trying to help them by have tracking down a few
collections in the US, but there are many more in Europe).
Filliozat has been publishing catalogues for a while for
different collections, as did Bill Pruitt. A summary of
catalogues for manuscripts is found in my 2003 dissertation,
there is another list in Skilling and Santi's three volume
(soon to be four) "Materials for the Study of the Tripitaka"
published through EFEO, FPL, and Lumbini. In my book, which
will be out sometime in 2007 (still in the publisher's hands)
I discuss manuscript collections and the problems in
researching them and locating them. You are right, there are
many scattered manuscripts and more become scattered everyday
because of unscrupulous traders. I am asked frequently to
identify mss. for private dealers and when I ask where they
acquired the manuscript, they are not forthcoming with the
information (because they acquired it illegally or
semi-legally through an "antique shop"). Virginia Shih, Henry
Ginsberg are good resource for this, as is Greg Greene. There
are not only dealers in Bangkok, Vientiane, Phnom Penh,
Mandalay, and Chiang Mai, but also in London, Berlin, Rome,
and Los Angeles. I imagine that most who purchase these
manuscripts can't read them and so will not report when they
find a rare text. Also, some dealers cut up (literally with a
saw through the wood cover) or sell the leaves independently
in tourist frames (it would be better if they just produced
fake mss., but its often easier to steal real mss.). So
scattering happens then too. Funny thing is, that I have
evidence and found expliciti stories of this same practice
happening with monks in the pre-modern period. It is not just
the fault of dealers and tourists. However, perhaps this is
part of the textual record and attachment to the
"completeness" of collections or even if "singular" texts is
the scholar's problem. Still, as a historian and philologist,
I would like to see texts stay together and preserved!
Its a sad situation. Please earn your students not to
participate in this trade and fuel the economy of mss. theft.
Best,
justin
---- Original message ----
>Date: Tue, 7 Nov 2006 20:37:18 +0100
>From: "Ole Holten Pind" <oleholtenpind@...>
>Subject: SV: [palistudy] unidettified Palm leaf
>To: <palistudy@yahoogroups.com>
>
>Dear Jim,
>
>I think it would be a good idea to ask Tzungkuen to mail the
ms. Iwould also
>ask any individual to report on ms.s they have heard about or
seen. There
>are many valuable Pali ms.s that have never been catalogued.
I have heard of
>some of vital importance, but so far they have not been made
available to
>scholars. I think it is necessary to push for a change. We
need to have
>access to important ms.s before it is too late.
>
>Best wishes,
>Ole Holten Pind
>
>
>-----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
>Fra: palistudy@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:palistudy@yahoogroups.com] På vegne
>af Jim Anderson
>Sendt: 7. november 2006 19:26
>Til: palistudy@yahoogroups.com
>Emne: [palistudy] unidettified Palm leaf
>
>Dear members,
>
>I received a message from Tzungkuen (Khemramsi) seeking help
in identifying
>a palm leaf manuscript. I have uploaded a jpeg image (about
800 KB) of a
>leaf from this manuscript to the following url for any
members interested in
>taking a look:
>
>http://ca.geocities.com/palistudy/img-X251407-0003.jpg
>
>It's looks very old and I find it hard to read. I don't
recognize the script
>but it does contain letters found in the Burmese script eg.
b. There are
>upside down Burmese dh's as well. Can anyone identify the
script and
>contents?
>
>Best wishes,
>Jim
>
><< Dear Jim
>
>My friend owns some palm leaf manuscripts which were handed
down from her
>ancesotrs. Her family asked some people in Taiwan to identify
those
>manuscripts but they all failed. Maybe someone in the
Palistudy group could
>give a hand to indentify the script and the content. Could
you help me to
>send the picture to people who may find it interesting?
>
>with metta
>
>Tzungkuen >>
>
>
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______________
Dr. Justin McDaniel
Dept. of Religious Studies
2617 Humanities Building
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
951-827-4530
justinm@...