A Research for Old Palm-leaf Manuscripts and Parabikes in Myanmar

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25580010
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Chinese philosophy/Indian philosophy/Buddhist studies
• Research Institution: Sendai National College of Technology
• Principal Investigator: KASAMATSU Sunao 仙台高等専門学校, 総合科学系, 准教授 (40510558)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): OUSAKA Yumi 仙台高等専門学校, 総合科学系, 名誉教授 (30152036) ; KAWASAKI Yutaka 大谷大学, 真宗総合研究所, 特別研究員 (70362639) ; PRUITT William パーリ文献協会, 理事(出版担当)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 南方仏教 / パーリ語 / 貝葉（Palm-Leaf）写本 / 折本写本（parabaik） / パーリ文献協会 / 情報工学

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The aim of this project is to digitize palm-leaf manuscripts and parabaiks in Myanmar. We, S. Kasamatsu, Dr. W. Pruitt of Pali Text Society and our collaborators have concentrated on researching and photographing the collection in the U Pho Thi Library of Saddhammajotika Monastery, Thaton, Mon State. The library does not have many texts written before the Fifth Council, held in 1857, but includes a great variety of texts useful for studying.
Our objectives, in addition to digitize manuscripts, are as follows: Encouraging people in Myanmar to conserve their heritage of manuscripts, and making it available to scholars throughout the world. Thanks to my colleagues of computer scientists, we are uploading our “electronic books” and preliminary catalogue on our web pages. A group of laypeople who maintain the Library have learned how to care for the manuscripts. They will be able to be more efficient in caring for the library after we have gone.

Free Research Field

インド学・仏教史学