Re: manuscripts

Re: Skilling's MS,

I'm a "secondary source" on this, and reporting what Filliozat explained to me.

She is aware of the legal details of his "holding" the MS, and
indicated to me that the pressing (legal) need for him to return them
to Burma had only be delayed because of the recent relocation of the
capital; had that not happened (and it was a surprise to many when it
did occur), the MS might already have been returned.

She was quite insistent that Skilling gives everyone the wrong
impression by behaving as if he owned the MS: he doesn't, and both
under his own mandate and various legal requirements, he is bound to
return them as soon as the Burmese Junta is ready to receive them.

She may be wrong, but I would surmise that the only possible error on
her part would be in estimating Skilling's temerity.

I am not going to repeat other information that has been shared with
me by various scholars, I feel, in confidence, but there seems to be
good reason for cynicism about the project.

Justin: you tend to assume that your positive experiences are
universal, or universally open to anyone and everyone.  Something
similar arose when you insisted that seeing MS at Bangkok's National
Library is "no problem"; for several scholars I have spoken to (and
myself as well) dealing with the Bk Nat'l Library does indeed entail
many serious problems --some of them heart-breaking.

I believe you when you say that you have had various positive
experiences with these institutions (Bkk, Skilling, etc.) --but you
should listen to the miseries of other scholars with an open mind,
and, perhaps, appreciate the extent to which your positive experiences
may be the exception to the rule --or may be because people have made
exceptions to the rules for your benefit.

Even where I had positive experiences accessing MS in Sri Lanka, I was
critically aware that almost any other scholar arriving with anything
less than a Sinhalese-fluent monk as his emissary (and, NB, *his*
emissary, as the situation would be demonstrably worse for a woman,
etc.) would not have been able to have an experience in any way
comparable.  I try to be aware of the limits, even when they do not
impede my own scholarship directly.

E.M.