Skilling's reply (Fragile Palm Leaves)

Dear Eisel Hazard,

Here are some notes on your communiqué of 11/10/06.

> If we're going to talk about Skilling in earnest, then, here is a
> summary of what little I know, and if Skilling himself or anyone else
> would be so kind as to contradict my one-sided understanding, I am
> indeed willing and eager to learn that I may be wrong.
>
I am afraid most of what you have written is inaccurate, so I offer some
corrections. I wonder where you picked up many of the ideas.


1) The purchase of manuscripts stopped by the year 2000 at the latest.
Fragile Palm Leaves has not bought manuscripts since that year. We stopped
for a number of reasons, the main one being that the crisis as we perceived
it - the flood of manuscripts - had ceased.


2)

>Over the past five years I have spoken with many scholars about Peter
> Skilling's "Fragile Palm Leaves" Project, and virtually every one of
> them has expressed some form of moral reservation about it --along
> with raising speculations as to its legality.

The project has been supported by many people, including scholars and monks.
I also know several scholars who have questioned or opposed it. We have
discussed the matter with good will and agreed to differ.


3)

> At its most basic, the Project *does* buy manuscripts from "dealers"
> and "smugglers", and has built up its inventory in what could be
> called an ethical and legislative grey area.

As noted above, the Project no longer buys manuscripts, and has not done so
for over six years. Those that were collected were bought from merchants and
shop-keepers on the open market. It is a bit of a dramatization to say they
were bought from "smugglers".

4)

> Fundamentally, the project's money *is* directly encouraging the
> illegal trade in Pali MS flowing out of Burma and into Thailand.

When the project began, and as it continued, we were aware of and regularly
discussed this problem. We decided to accept the risk for what we considered
a worthy cause.

5)

> The indirect effects are also significant: there is now a large
> collection of MS in Taiwan that was acquired (reportedly) entirely by
> Taiwanese private collectors buying what Skilling passed over or
> rejected in his own shopping for "his" collection.

I do not think there is any evidence or foundation at all for this report.
When Fragile Palm Leaves entered the scene, there was already a booming
market with its own momentum - that was what prompted us to act. The
merchants said from the very beginning that the main buyers were from
Taiwan. I know of two collections in Taiwan. One, purchased in one lot by a
Buddhist institute, claims to go back many years, perhaps decades. Another,
belonging to a private individual, I know only by hearsay - it appears to
have its own origins.

6) Fragile Palm Leaves has never set itself up as an example. It did what it
did at the time out of a sincere belief that it was necessary. Others
disagree, and it is their right to do so.

I have personally discouraged several people in several countries from
following the example, or have at least pointed out to them the problems,
which are those you mention.

7)
> It seems to me that there is a complex balancing act so far as the
> legal and financial backing of the project is concerned, with various
> promises having been made to (and by) the PTS, the Thai authorities,
> and (directly or indirectly) the Myanmar Junta in Pyinmana --who still
> have some hypothetical legal right to their cultural patrimony under
> international and national law, as the Fragile Palm Leaves project
> explicitly recognises.

We are not in touch with and have not made any promises to any of the
authorities you mention. As a small project we have worked quietly on the
personal level with concerned Buddhists.

8)

> This is indeed a subject that has stirred up rumour and innuendo among
> many scholars, and it may well be that I am the victim of a common
> misperception of the facts.

Thank you for recognizing this possibility. I hope you can see from the
above that this is the case.

You are right in describing the purchase of manuscripts as an ethical and
legal grey area. From my perspective, this means an area in which there is
bound to be a wide spectrum of views.

SUMMARY

For a certain period, in the 1990s, a group of people began a project called
Fragile Palm Leaves in response to what they perceived as a crisis: a flood
of Buddhist manuscripts onto open markets. The project established a
Foundation in 2001. For various reasons, one of the primary being that the
flood seemed to have abated and the crisis passed, we stopped any new
purchases by the year 2000. The present concern of the project is to
preserve and catalogue the manuscripts and to make them available digitally
to international institutions and scholars. This goes slowly because of a
severe lack of funds and staff. The project does, however, continue to
receive the support of concerned scholars and Buddhist groups.

The manuscript collection is not the only, or even the main, concern of the
Fragile Palm Leaves Foundation. The foundation is dedicated to the
preservation and study of Buddhist literature in general. It has published
three volumes of the series 'Materials for the Study of the Triptiaka' to
date (2202-2004),and at least five more volumes are nearly ready and should
be published in the year 2007.

Fragile Palm Leaves published a Newsletter from January 2540/1997 to
December 2545/2002, a total of seven issues. Regrettably we have been unable
to produce the Newsletter since, after the departure of the person who
helped with the layout.

Attempts to set up a website since the year 2000 have been unsuccessful,
owing to lack of time and of requisite skills. We hope to set up a site in
2007.

With best regards,

Peter Skilling.