In this guest post, Dr Pia Maria Jolliffe, who teaches Japanese history at the University of Oxford, and Mahli Knutson, a student of International Politics and Economics at Middlebury College, Vermont, investigate whether a mysterious image recently acquired by the British Library was really an original item used to test the faith of Japanese Christians during the Tokugawa period (1603-1867).

Kami fumi-e, which claims to date from mid-Genroku era (i.e around 1697). British Library, ORB.40/1061

The image in the British Library was sold as a kami fumi-e, or paper image made to be trampled on, supposedly used in the systemic persecution of Christians stemming from Tokugawa Ieyasu’s 1614 anti-Christian edict. Indeed, from around 1634 onwards men, women, girls and boys were required to gather for annual ceremonies in which they were asked to trample (fumu) on images (e) depicting the Passion of Jesus Christ. Even the sick and bedridden had to commit this act of blasphemy and images were carried into their homes (Kataoka 2014: 48; Marega 1939: 281, 285). In this way, the authorities hoped to identify Christians who were supposed to refuse to blaspheme against what is considered most holy in their faith.

The material of these images changed over time. Whilst the images preserved today are mostly made of brass, there also existed images with wooden frames and some made of paper (Yasutaka 2018: 242). The image recently acquired by the British Library claims to be one such paper image from the mid-Genroku era (i.e. around 1697). Many other versions of this image exist in places such as at the Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History at the University of San Franscisco*, at the 26 Martyrs Museum in Nagasaki and at Seinan Daigakuin Museum in Fukuoka, as shown below.

Image at the Ricci Institute (San Francisco), no shelf-mark, claims to be from Tenmei Gannen (1781) (Courtesy of the Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History, University of San Francisco)

Image 26 Martyrs Museum (Nagasaki), no shelf mark, claims to be from the year Keian Kōin (1650) (permission granted by Domenico Vitali SJ, director of the Museum)

Although the item now in the British Library claims to be from the mid Genroku era, there are good reasons to assume it is a replica from a later period. Indeed, Japanese scholars who have analysed the phenomenon of paper fumi-e suggest that it is difficult today to distinguish “real” copies (produced during the Tokugawa period) from fake copies (produced after the ban on Christianity was lifted in 1873). For example, Kataoka discussed the occurence of such images as long ago as 1979. He noted that he saw different versions of these image at three different times. At one point, in 1965, even in the house of the Kiyama family whose ancestors were village headmen (shōya). Kataoka (2014: 41) provides an image of the house and notes that the then head of family told him that the image has belonged to the household ever since it was created (monogokoro tsuita koro). Because fumi-e procedures happened in the Kiyama household, one supposes that the paper image with a male head on a cross had been used as a kami fumi-e. More recently, Yasutaka (2018) also commented on the occurrence of this image. In his view most of these images are reproductions that have either been made in the Edo Period itself or afterwards to satisfy the demand for “Kirishitan” objects in a so-called Kirishitan boom. Moreover, there are replica that have been produced for contemporary museums (Yasutaka 2018: 241-242). For example, the museum of Seinan Gakuin University holds such a replica (shown below) which was supposedly reproduced in the Meiji period as a souvenir for foreigners. In a comment on this piece, Mr Churei of the Seinan-Gakuin Museum, suggests that it is quite unlikely people during the Tokugawa period were asked to trample on paper showing the kamon (emblem) of the influential Kuroda family (Churei 2017). This comment is also relevant to the image obtained by the British Library which also shows the emblem of the Kuroda family.

Image at the Seinan Gakuin University Museum (Fukuoka), claims to be from Bunsei Gannen (1818), shelfmark N-b-005 (permission granted by Shimozono Tomoya, curator of the Museum)

The second mystery of this image lies in whether it is a fumi-e at all. Indeed, there is the possibility that these images may not have been used as fumi-e. Instead, they are likely to depict the severed head of a Dutchman who refused to “trample on” (or object to?) Christian priests. How did we get this idea?

First of all, the text on the right hand side suggests this. Here, above the kamon of the Kuroda family, we can read:　黒田家の定一切支丹破天連ヲ踏マザル者ハ獄門ノ事 (Kuroda-ke no sadame (jō). Hitotsu Kirishitan Bateren wo fumazaru mono ha gokumon no koto) which can literally be translated as “1. Decree of the Kuroda family: Those who don't trample on the Christian bateren will be punished by gokumon [exposure of the severed head for several days”.

Gokumon (“gate of the gaol”) was a punishment that consisted of the public exposure of a severed head. Before the 17th century, a severed head was sometimes hung above gaols. During the Tokugawa period, however, the severed heads of those sentenced to gokumon were taken from the gaol (where the beheading took place) to an official execution ground. There, the severed heads were left on a stand for a couple of days, as a kind of humiliation beyond death, as shown in the illustration below.

Gokumon in Keibatsu Dai Hiroku 刑罪大秘録. (1836). National Diet Library, B150 K34-1

It is also noteworthy that this punishment was more common than burning at stake or crucifixion which were two severe punishments for Christians (Botsman 2005: 20). Is it likely that the image of the British Library is about a Dutchman who was sentenced to gokumon for not trampling on (or opposing) Christian priests?

Why do we think it may be the depiction of a Dutchman? It is the red curly hair of the depicted person that makes us wonder whether it is a Dutch person’s head that is depicted here. During the Tokugawa period, Dutch people were generally referred to as kōmō jin (紅毛人, red -haired people) and Edo popular literature accordingly portrayed Dutch men with curly red hair.

A Dutchman: Orandabanashi 紅毛談 (1765). Waseda University Library, Bunko 08 C0200

In sum, through the acquisition of this doubly mysterious item, the British Library has joined the community of other institutions that hold images of this kind. Whether these are “real” Tokugawa period or “fake” Meiji period kami fumi-e images is an interesting question and the answers give different but nonetheless fascinating information about the history of Christianity in Japan. Likewise, interpreting the images as depictions of a Dutchman who was punished for not being in opposition to Christian priests opens up a series of new questions.

References
Botsman, Daniel (2005) Punishment and Power in the Making of Modern Japan. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.
Churei, Shōji (2017) “Kami fumi-e” Seinan Gakuin University Museum News 3.
Gotō Godōan (1765) Orandabanashi vol. 1.
Keibatsu Dai Hiroku (1836).
Kataoka, Yakichi (2014) Fumi-e, Kakure Kirishitan. Tokyo: Tomo Shobō.
Marega, Mario (1939) “E-fumi” Monumenta Nipponica, 2/1, pp. 281-286
Yasutaka Hiroaki (2018) Fumie o funda kirishitan. Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan.

Pia Maria Jolliffe (University of Oxford) and Mahli Knutson (Middlebury College)

We are very grateful to Alessandro Bianchi, Hanaoka Kiyoko, Miyata Kazuo and Hamish Todd for commenting on earlier drafts of this paper.

* Since 2022 the Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History has been housed at Boston College.

Edited 26 May 2022.

 

This is the tenth of a series of blog posts celebrating the British Library exhibition on Buddhism, 25 Oct 2019 – 23 Feb 2020. Today's post looks forward to the talk Buddha's Daughters: Women in Buddhism Today, to be held at the British Library on 6 February 2020.

The Canon of Buddhist teachings in Pali, called the Tipitaka, records the practice of loving kindness taught by the Buddha, directed at all human beings. This blog post recalls episodes from the Life of the Buddha highlighting the role of women in Buddhism at the time of the historical Buddha Gotama, with illustrations from Burmese manuscripts.

King Pasenadi Kosala, a close devotee of the Buddha, was displeased when he was informed that his queen had given birth to a daughter. The Buddha taught the king that Buddhism does not consider the birth of a daughter a cause for worry and despair, for Buddhism considers men and women to be equally useful to society. The Buddha elevated the status of women by pointing out that a woman is the mother of man, and no person is worthy of greater reverence and veneration than one’s mother.

After renouncing the world, for six years Siddhattha Gotama tried to find release from the weariness of existence but he could not reach his goal. While Prince Siddhattha was sitting under a Banyan tree, Sujata, a rich man’s daughter, offered him a golden cup containing milky rice. This gift provided the ascetic Buddha-to-be Siddhattha with enough strength to practise meditation and to achieve enlightenment. Later Sujata became a bhikkhuni (an ordained female monastic).

The Bodhisatta receiving the milky rice pudding from Sujata. He accepted his first food after realizing that extreme asceticism was not suitable for achieving enlightenment. British Library, Or. 14297, f. 16

Vasundhara is an earth goddess and her name literally translates to ‘flow of wealth’. Boddhisatta Siddhattha’s moment of enlightenment came when he touched the earth to bear witness to the virtues and great offerings he had made, while Mara (the demon of illusion) assaulted him with his armies. The earth goddess was summoned to help the Boddhisatta by wringing water from her hair to wash away Mara’s armies. The Buddha’s victory is presented with a gesture of his hand downward toward the earth. This gesture, called the Bhumisparsha mudra, or "the earth witness" mudra, commemorates the Buddha's victory over temptation by the demon Mara, and his attainment of enlightenment.

Siddhattha, seated in a cross-legged posture, decided not to arise until he became a Buddha, and he meditated. Mara, the Evil One, then arrived, riding on a ferocious elephant and appearing to have a thousand arms, each bearing a weapon. In response the prince called the earth to witness. When the kneeling figure of the earth goddess replied, Mara and his army found all their efforts to no avail, and therefore fled. British Library, Or. 14297, f. 20

Queen Maya was married to the Buddha’s father, King Suddhodana, the king of Kapilavatthu. After ten lunar months, she returned to her parents for the impending birth. On the way, she gave birth to the prince Siddhattha at the Lumbini garden on Friday, on the full-moon day of May. She died seven days after the birth of the Buddha. During the seventh rainy season the Buddha went to Tavatimsa heaven and preached the Abhidhamma (higher teaching) for three months to his mother, who had been reborn as a deva, as a mark of gratitude for his former mother. After hearing the Dhamma from the Buddha, she became a Sotapanna (Stream-winner) and entered the first stage on the path to enlightenment.

The Buddha teaching the Abhidhamma in Tavatimsa heaven to assembled gods. British Library, Or. 14405, f. 77

After the death of the Buddha’s father, King Suddhodana, the widowed queen Gotami, the Buddha’s foster mother, approached the Buddha with a request to join the Sangha or monkhood.  However, at the beginning the Buddha did not permit the admission of women into the Order. Although the Buddha initially declined, after the intercession of Ananda, he later granted his foster mother’s wish. The ordination of Gotami and the establishment of the Order of Buddhist Nuns or bhikkhunis is the one of the great stories in Buddhist literature. Gotami was the first ordained bhikkhuni and the foremost female disciple of the Buddha. It was the first time in the history of the religion that the Order of Nuns was established and women were admitted to the monastic life.

Yasodhara was the mother of Rahula and the wife of the Bodhisatta Siddhattha Gotama. When she heard about her husband’s ascetic life she took to wearing yellow robes, taking one meal a day, and rejecting comfortable beds. After the ordination of Pajapati Gotami, Yasodhara was ordained as well, and many other women also followed in her footsteps to become bhikkhunis.

The Dhammapada commentary includes a story of a bhikkhuni called Janapadakalyani Rupananada who was engaged to be married to Nanda, the brother of the Buddha. After Nanda became a bhikkhu she went to the Buddha to hear him preach and she also became an arahant (a perfected person).

The followers of the Buddha including Bhikkhuni Patisambhidapattacira, and Bhikkhuni Uppalavanna pay respects to the Buddha. British Library, Or. 14405, f. 65

There were many more bhikkhunis during the Buddha’s time. Uppalavanna was the daughter of a wealthy merchant from Savatthi. She became a bhikkhuni and was the foremost model amongst bhikkhunis.

Patisambhidapattacira was the daughter of another wealthy man who went mad with grief when she lost her family. After hearing the Buddha’s teaching she became a bhikkhuni and she was an eminent female arahant declared by the Buddha.

Visakha was one of the chief female lay followers of the Buddha. Her father was the king’s treasurer and her husband was a wealthy man. When she was seven years old she attained the first stage of sanctity after hearing the Buddha’s teachings. She donated the Pubbarama monastery to the Buddha and his disciples. She offered daily alms to the monks and nuns, and also played an important role in the affairs of the Order of Nuns.

Kisagotami from Savatthi experienced the profound pain of grief when her little son died. After the Buddha had taught to her about impermanence, as death comes to all beings, she requested the Buddha to admit her to the order of Bhikkhunis.

When the Buddha arrived at Vesali, the courtesan Ambapalika approached the Buddha and invited him to a meal. The Buddha accepted the invitation of the courtesan. The next day, after the Buddha received another meal from her, Ambapalika also donated her mango grove. After hearing the Buddha’s teachings she entered the order of nuns and became an arahant (a perfected person).

Ambapalika offering a meal to the Buddha and his disciples, and donating a mango grove. British Library, Or. 13534, f. 18-19

Just like Buddhist monks, Buddhist nuns also left their family life to practise the Buddha’s teachings. After the passing away of the Buddha, all his Bhikkhus and Bhikkhunis, male and female disciples, continued teaching the Dhamma to the people to maintain the Buddha’s teachings. The Apadana provides all these rich biographical details with great poetic flourish. The Therigatha (Verses of Elder Nuns), a section of the Khuddaka Nikaya, contains numerious stanzas that clearly express the feelings of joy experienced by saintly bhikkhunis at their ability to enter the Order and realize the Truth. The Anguttara Nikaya gives a very comprehensive record of Buddhist women, bhikkhunis and upasikas (nuns and laywomen), who did great work not only as followers of the Dhamma but as preachers of the Buddha’s teachings. Each woman, like each man, had in her the potentiality of becoming an arahant.

Further reading:
Mahathera Piyadassi, The spectrum of Buddhism. Taiwan: The Corporate Body of the Buddha Educational Foundation, 1991.
Alice Collett, Women in Early Indian Buddhism: comparative textual studies. N.Y. Oxford University Press, 2014.

San San May

This is the final blog post by San San May, assistant Curator of the Buddhism exhibition, who joined the British Library as Curator for Burmese in 2000, and retired in October 2019.

San San May (in the centre) viewing manuscripts in the Universities Central Library in Yangon, during an official visit to Myanmar in May 2011 on behalf of the British Library.

San San May, Curator for Burmese (left), with colleagues in the Southeast Asia section of the British Library in 2016 (from left): Sud Chonchirdsin, Curator for Vietnamese; Annabel Gallop, Curator for Malay and Indonesian, and head of the Southeast Asia section; and Jana Igunma, Ginsburg Curator for Thai, Lao and Cambodian and Lead Curator for the Buddhism exhibition.

The British Library is fortunate in having an unparalled collection of over 100 Zoroastrian works ranging from the oldest, the ninth century Ashem Vohu prayer written in Sogdian script discovered by Aurel Stein in Central Asia in 1907, to, most recently, manuscripts collected especially for the Royal Society in London during the late-nineteenth century. Although Zoroastrianism is Iranian in origin, most of our manuscripts in fact come from India. They are written in Avestan (Old Iranian), Middle Persian, New Persian, and also in the Indian languages Sanskrit and Gujarati.

In the past few years several of our manuscripts have become familiar through exhibitions such as Everlasting Flame: Zoroastrianism in History and Imagination held at SOAS (2013) and New Delhi (2016) and also through the Zoroastrian articles and collection items included in our recent website Discovering Sacred Texts. Building on this and thanks to the philanthropic support of Mrs Purviz Rusy Shroff, we have now been able to complete digitisation of the whole collection. This introductory post outlines the history of the collection and is intended as the first in a series highlighting the collection as the manuscripts go live during the next few months.

One of the holiest Zoroastrian prayers, the Ashem vohu, discovered at Dunhuang by Aurel Stein in 1907. Transcribed into Sogdian (a medieval Iranian language) script, this fragment dates from around the ninth century AD, about four centuries earlier than any other surviving Zoroastrian text (BL Or.8212/84). Public domain

The collection is made up of three main collections described below, dating from the seventeenth, the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries, in addition to individual items acquired by British travellers to India and employees of the East India Company. I’ll be writing more about these individual collections in future posts.

Thomas Hyde (1636–1703)

Our oldest collection, and the earliest to reach the West, was acquired for the seventeenth century polymath Thomas Hyde. Hyde became Laudian Professor of Arabic at the University of Oxford in 1691 and Regius Professor of Hebrew in 1697 and also served as Royal Secretary and Translator of Oriental Languages for three successive monarchs: Charles II, James II and William III. While he had never travelled in the East himself, he built up a network of travellers and East India Company officials whom he asked to purchase books and manuscripts on his behalf. Several of these were chaplains whom Hyde had personally recommended to the Levant and the East India trading companies. After his death in 1703 part of his collection was purchased by Queen Anne for the Royal Library. It was subsequently given to the British Museum by King George III in 1757. 


A copy of the Khordah Avesta (‘Little Avesta’) which contains prayers, hymns and invocations. This manuscript begins with the Ashem vohu (featured also in Sogdian script above) and is dated 30 Ardibihisht 1042 in the era of Yazdagird (1673). It was copied at the request of the English Agent Kunvarji Nanabhai Modi probably on commission for Hyde. Hyde could read though never wholly understood Avestan, but he used this particular manuscript as a model for the special Avestan type he created for his well-known History of the Persian Religion published in 1700 (BL Royal Ms 16.B.vi, f. 1r). Public domain

Samuel Guise (1751-1811)

Samuel Guise began his career as a Surgeon on the Bombay Establishment of the East-India Company in 1775 and from 1788 until the end of 1795, he was Head Surgeon at the East-India Company’s Factory in Surat where his work brought him into close contact with the Parsi community. An avid collector, he acquired altogether more than 400 manuscripts while in India. At some point he was fortunate enough to be able to purchase from his widow, the collection of the famous Dastur Darab who had taught the first translator of the Avesta, Anquetil du Perron, between 1758 and 1760 (Guise, Catalogue, 1800, pp. 3-4):

This Collection was made at Surat, from the year 1788 till the End of 1795, with great Trouble and Expence. ... Of this Collection, however rich in Arabick and Persian works of Merit, the chief Value consists in the numerous Zend and Pehlavi MSS treating of the antient Religion and History of the Parsees, or Disciples of the celebrated Zoroaster, many of which were purchased, at a very considerable Expence, from the Widow of Darab, who had been, in the Study of those Languages, the Preceptor of M. Anquetil du Perron; and some of the Manuscripts are such as this inquisitive Frenchman found it impossible to procure

In 1796 he retired to Montrose, Angus, where he lived until his death in 1811. The story of his collection and what subsequently happened to it is told in my article “The strange story of Samuel Guise: an 18th-century collection of Zorostrian manuscripts,” but eventually in 1812, 26 Zoroastrian manuscripts were acquired at auction by the East India Company Library. They include one of the oldest surviving Avestan manuscripts, the Pahlavi Videvdad (‘Law to drive away the demons’), a legal work concerned with ritual and purity which was copied in 1323 AD (Mss Avestan 4). Other important manuscripts are a copy of the liturgical text, the Videvdad sādah (Mss Avestan 1), attributed to the fifteenth century, and one of the oldest copies of the Yasna sādah – the simple text of the Yasna ritual without any commentary– (Mss Avestan 17).

Verses 6-7
 of Yasna 43 on the creation of the universe. The red floral decorations are verse dividers and are a feature of this manuscript. This copy was completed in India in 1556 (BL Mss Avestan 17, f. 128r). Public domain

Burjorji Sorabji Ashburner

Burjorji Ashburner was a successful Bombay merchant, a Freemason, and a member of the Bombay Asiatic Society. He was also a member of the Committee of Management for one of the most important Zoroastrian libraries in Bombay, the Mulla Firuz Library and made a special point of having copies made of some of the rarer items. In April 1864 Burjurji wrote offering some 70 to 80 volumes as a gift to the Royal Society, London, promising to add additional ones:

In the course of antiquarian researches...with special reference to the Parsee religion, I have had the good fortune to obtain some valuable ancient manuscripts in Zend, Pehlui, and Persian. I do not wish to keep to myself what may be useful in the literary world. [1]

His collection consisted of standard Arabic and Persian works in addition to nineteen specifically Zoroastrian manuscripts in Persian, Avestan and Pahlavi. A number of Bujorji’s manuscripts came originally from Iran. The oldest is an illustrated copy of the Videvdad sādah (RSPA 230) which was copied in Yazd, Iran, in 1647. Whereas Zoroastrian manuscripts are generally unillustrated except for small devices such as verse dividers and occasional diagrams, this one, exceptionally, contains seven coloured drawings of trees, used as chapter headings not unlike Islamic manuscripts of the same period.

The beginning of chapter 19 of the Videvdad sadah in which Zoroaster repels an attempt on his life by the demon Buiti, sent by the evil spirit Angra Mainyu. Note the elongated calligraphic script which is typical of the older manuscripts from Iran (BL RSPA 230, f. 227r). Public domain

Several of Bujorji’s manuscripts were copied or written by Siyavakhsh Urmazdyar an Iranian poet and writer living in Bombay in the mid-nineteenth century. His poetical name was Azari, but he was otherwise known as Sarfahkar Kirmani or Irani. These include works in Persian on the calendar (the subject of a major controversy at the time), a dictionary, treatises on divination and the interaction between Zoroastrians and Muslims, in addition to copies of Avestan texts.

Other sources

The remaining manuscripts were acquired in India, mostly by East India Company servants Jonathan Duncan Governor of Bombay (1756–1811), Sir John Malcolm (1769–1833), and the Scottish linguist and poet John Leyden (1775-1811). They range from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries.

The beginning of the Qissah-i Sanjan, the traditional story in Persian verse of the settlement of the Parsis in India composed by Bahman ibn Kayqubād at Nausari in AD 1600. This copy is undated but was written, most probably for John Leyden, on paper watermarked 1799 (BL IO Islamic 2572, f. 1v). Public domain

Further reading

Samuel Guise, A Catalogue and Detailed Account of a Very Valuable and Curious Collection of Manuscripts, Collected in Hindostan. London, 1800.
Almut Hintze, An introduction to Zoroastrianism, in Discovering Sacred Texts, British Library 2019.
Jenny Rose, Zoroastrianism from the early modern period, in Discovering Sacred Texts, British Library 2019.
Ursula Sims-Williams, Zoroastrianism in late antiquity, in Discovering Sacred Texts, British Library 2019.
----------------, “The strange story of Samuel Guise: an 18th-century collection of Zorostrian manuscripts,” Bulletin of the Asia Institute 19, 2005 (2009), pp. 199-209.
----------------, “Zoroastrian Manuscripts in the British Library, London,” in The Transmission of the Avesta, ed. A. Cantera. Wiesbaden, 2012, pp. 173-94.

We are grateful to Mrs Purviz Rusy Shroff, Mr Neville Shroff and Mr Zarir Cama for their generous support towards this project.

Ursula Sims-Williams, Lead Curator Persian, British Library
© CCBY

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[1] Royal Society Archives MC.7.53: Ashburner to the Foreign Secretary, 13 April 1864

This is the ninth of a series of blog posts accompanying the British Library exhibition on Buddhism, 25 Oct 2019 – 23 Feb 2020.

Stories about the Buddha and Buddhism are depicted not only in illustrated manuscripts, but also in other media such as wall paintings, vertical hangings and thousands of long, painted, narrative scrolls that are part of the Lao and Thai-Lao tradition. These scrolls, found in Laos and Northeast Thailand, usually depict the story of Prince Vessantara, the penultimate incarnation of Prince Siddhartha. Prince Vessantara’s life was dedicated to donating whatever was requested of him, most notably the gift to beseeching Brahmins of the white elephant that ensured the prosperity of his own kingdom. Later, while Vessantara was in exile due to this gift, the Brahmin Chuchok, who lived as a beggar, asked for his children, while the god Indra, disguised as Chuchok, asked for his wife.

Vessantara’s gift of the white elephant, illustrated on a scroll from Kalasin, Thailand, 1975. At the lower left, Prince Vessantara pours water onto the eight Brahmins, sealing the gift of the white elephant. On the upper right, the eight Brahmins ride the elephant out of the city’s gate, threatened by a soldier disputing the gift’s authenticity. Photograph by Leedom Lefferts, courtesy of Ajaan Somroay Yencheuy.

Scene of Vessantara sealing the gift of the white elephant by pouring water onto the hands of the recipients. Illustrated in a Thai folding book containing extracts from the Tipitaka and the Mahabuddhaguna. Thailand, 19th century. British Library, Or. 16552, f. 24

Dr. Sandra Cate and I have termed these long painted scrolls – which are about a meter wide and can extend from 15 to 45 and more meters in length – “murals on the move”, because they translate the Vessantara story painted on the walls of Buddhist temples (wat) into a portable version, and parade it through the community to display it. We can also see these scrolls as “manuscripts on the move”, not only because most have captions and other details written on them to explain the story, but also because the painting itself allows people to “read” the story in its narrative totality.

A painted scroll of the Vessantara Jataka is shown hung below a mural painting of the Last Ten Jatakas. Photographed at a temple in Buriram, Thailand, 2016, by Leedom Lefferts

Illustrated manuscripts are rare outside major cities, and the usual medium for Buddhist sacred texts is narrow palm leaf manuscripts which are usually not illustrated. Older Northeast Thai-Lao and Lao wat were almost entirely constructed of easily available wood which is not amenable to murals. The oldest illustrated materials now found in Northeast Thai and Lao wat are colored lithographs produced by the S. Thammapakdi company, dating to the early 1900’s, and sets of these prints depicting the lives of the Buddha and of Prince Vessantara are often found mounted on the walls of wooden preaching halls. But the tradition of long portable painted scrolls is arguably earlier, and may have been brought to the Lao through long-standing connections with India.

Illustration of a monk giving a sermon in a Thai manuscript containing extracts from the Tipitaka, the legend of Phra Malai and illustrations of the Last Ten Birth Tales. Thailand, 1894. British Library, Or. 16101, f. 89

Bundled palm leaf manuscripts kept in a wooden box are distributed to monks to recite their section. Roi-et, Thailand, 2005. Photograph by Leedom Lefferts.

The ingenuity of the Lao is that they have taken these scrolls, best seen “in motion”, and incorporated them into a two-day merit-making festival, the Bun Phra Wet (the Merit-making Festival for Prince Vessantara, Phra Wet). The first day, muu hom (Lao; Thai, wan ruam), the day of coming together, includes visits by friends and relatives from more distant villages to the celebrating community. More importantly, it culminates in welcoming the return to the community of Prince Vessantara and his family, the Prince embodied in the scroll which the people in procession carry aloft. In this way, the people re-enact the beginning of the story’s climax, when they recognize their belief in the justice of Prince Vessantara’s actions and invite him to return home.

Scene of Chuchok leading Vessantara’s children away through the forest. Illustration in a folding book containing the Mahabuddhaguna, Thailand, 1841. British Library, Or. 15925, f. 43

Chuchok leading the children of Vessantara away, performed by lay people during a procession in Khon Kaen, Thailand, 2008. Photograph by Leedom Lefferts.

In the cooler late afternoon of muu hom the rolled-up long scroll is taken from its storage place in the wat to a nearby water source outside the village, monks are invited to attend, and villagers gather, sitting on the ground on mats. The water source replicates the surroundings of Vessantara and his family’s hermitage in their place of exile, on Mazeway Mountain. The villagers then begin the story’s celebratory end. The Prince’s children have returned to the palace, ransomed by their grandparents; Vessantara sits in meditation, accompanied by his wife, Matsi. An elderly man initiates the invocation to the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha and the receipt of the five precepts, and then recites a special request, asking Phra Wet to return home. The elder’s recitation apologizes on behalf of the citizens who asked Vessantara’s father, the King, to exile his son. Sometimes a monk acting as Phra Wet, rejects the invitation two times, finally accepting it, reluctantly; sometimes a layman accepts it. A dish holding candles, incense, and leaves and flowers, meant as a token of the city, is offered. Phra Wet is reluctant to accept because he has found success and peace at the hermitage in this wild place “hidden in the mountains”; he finally agrees because it has been foretold that it is his duty to become king.

Vessantara is asked to return home and the family is reunited. Illustrated in a Thai folding book containing extracts from the Tipitaka and the Mahabuddhaguna. Thailand, 19th century. Or. 16552, f. 78

Lay people and monks re-enact the scene in which Vessantara is asked to return to the Kingdom. Photograph taken in Khon Kaen, Thailand, 2014, by Leedom Lefferts.

At this point, the village’s celebration echoes the story. In the Jataka tale, the celebratory procession wends its way city-ward for thirty days. The village procession mimics this, walking from the water source outside the village with the long scroll unfurled and held high on sticks or by its upper edge, as participants proceed with laughter and jollity. Villagers say Phra Wet is in the scroll; “Vessantara comes home”, as the day’s name signifies. As the procession enters the community, more and more people join it, holding the scroll while dancing, singing, and generally exclaiming, bringing branches and flowers from the forest to the wat. The festive congregation enters the temple grounds and circles the preaching hall three times, placing the branches and flowers in baskets under waving flags. They carry scroll into the preaching hall and fasten it to pillars so that it surrounds the preaching and audience area, converting it into a transformative space.

Vessantara scroll procession, Nong Bua Lam Phu, Thailand, 2011. Photograph by Sandra Cate.  To download a short video of a scroll procession in Khon Kaen province, filmed by Leedom Lefferts in 2009, please click here.

That evening, the Phra Malai legend is read to the audience, ensuring that they know the importance of listening to the complete Vessantara Jataka. Phra Malai, a monk who had accumulated much merit, travels to the various Buddhist hells and to Tavatimsa heaven to worship the Culamani Cetiya, in which is enshrined the hair of Siddhartha, the Buddha-to-be, which he had cut off when he entered his seven years of exile. There Phra Malai meets Indra, King of the Gods, and Maitreya, the incarnation who will follow the Buddha of the present era. Maitreya enjoins Phra Malai to return to the human world and inform its citizens that, in order to be reborn when Maitreya comes, they must listen to the complete recitation of the Vessantara Jataka.

Audience listening to the Phra Malai story, burning candles and incense over water in the transformative space created by the scroll and other meaningful objects. The sacralized water will be taken home to infuse bath water for children and older adults. Photograph taken by Leedom Lefferts, Khon Kaen Province, Thailand, 2006.

The next day, muu thet, the day of the sermon, monks recite the complete story from palm leaf manuscripts. This takes place in the transformative space created by the hanging scroll. Indeed, since he is present in the scroll, people say that Prince Vessantara hears the recitation of the story of his own life.

After the day-long recitation, villagers clean the preaching hall, and the scroll is taken down and rolled and stored for the ceremony the following year. A scroll endures considerable wear and tear in the course of the procession and while hanging. Most new scrolls are produced in just two villages in Northeast Thailand, but the fluorescence of scroll production by local artists appears to have occurred in the period following World War II to the mid-1980’s. The Buddhist year 2500 (1957CE) seems to have resulted in a peak of production, as Buddhists realized that the 2,500 years to follow have been predicted to witness a decline in the following of the Dharma. The continuing popularity of annual Bun Phra Wet festivals in the thousands of Northeast Thai and Lowland Lao temples indicates the vibrancy of this religious practice among these people.

An elderly monk reading from a palm leaf manuscript. Photograph taken in Roi-et Province, Thailand, 2005, by Leedom Lefferts.

References and further reading
Brereton, Bonnie Pacala, and Somroay Yencheuy, Buddhist Murals of Northeast Thailand: Reflections of the Isan Heartland. Chiang Mai: Mekong Press, 2010

Kaiser, Thomas, with Leedom Lefferts and Martina Wernsdörfer, Devotion: Image, Recitation, and Celebration of the Vessantara Epic in Northeast Thailand. Zurich: Ethnographic Museum, University of Zurich and Arnoldsche Art Publishers. 2017

Lefferts, Leedom, and Sandra Cate, Buddhist Storytelling in Thailand and Laos: The Vessantara Scroll at the Asian Civilisations Museum. Singapore: Asian Civilisations Museum, 2012.

Leedom Lefferts

Leedom Lefferts is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Drew University, Madison, New Jersey, and Visiting Scholar at the Carolina Asia Center, The University of North Carolina. His studies have focused on Northeast Thai Lao and Southeast Asian material culture, including indigenous pottery production, the Vessantara epic and its scrolls, and issues of rural development and political inclusion.

 

In March 2019, the digitisation was completed of 75 Javanese manuscripts from Yogyakarta now held in the British Library, which had been captured from the Kraton or Palace of Yogyakarta in June 1812 following a British assault.  What is much less widely known is that the British Library also holds the core of another royal library from Indonesia, also taken in armed conflict during the brief period of British administration in Java from 1811 to 1816 under the command of Thomas Stamford Raffles. All  the 34 manuscripts from south Sulawesi in the British Library can be identified as originating from the palace of the Sultan of Bone, and were seized in a British attack in June 1814.

Bugis diary of a senior court official of Bone, for May 1793. British Library, Add 12373, f. 7v 

At the time the ruler of Bone was Sultan Muhammad Ismail Muhtajuddin (r. 1812-1823), also known as La Mappatunruq and posthumously as Matinroe ri Lalebbata; he was the son of the redoubtable Sultan Ahmad al-Salih Syamsuddin (r. 1775-1812) who had died just two years previously. Following disagreements between the Sultan and the British Resident of Makassar, an expedition was despatched from Java under the command of General Sir Miles Nightingale. On 8 June 1814, troops led by by Lt. Col. McLeod attacked and overran the palace of the Sultan of Bone at Bontoala outside Makassar, with a considerable loss of life on the Bugis side. Five cannon and a large quantity of armaments were captured - and also, evidently, many manuscripts from the royal library - after which the palace was set on fire by the British (Thorn 1815: 341).

An account by Captain David Macdonald ([1840?]: 222) confirms that present on the Makassar expedition in 1814 was the Resident of Semarang, John Crawfurd. In 1842 Crawfurd's collection of 136 Indonesian manuscripts was acquired by the British Museum, including thirty manuscripts in Bugis and Makassarese, all of which can now be identified as coming from the court of Bone.  The British Library also holds four further Bugis manuscripts which appear to originate from the same source. These include two royal Bone diaries from the India Office Library (MSS Bugis 1 and 2) which bear Raffles's bookplate, and were presumably presented to him after the military expedition.  Another court diary -  of the Maqdanrang, one of the most senior officials of Bone - was presented to the British Museum in 1916 by a Miss E. G. Wren (it is now shelved as Or. 8154, alongside a volume comprising letters and fragments of documents found within the diary shelved as Or. 8154*). It is possible that certain Bugis manuscripts held in other British institutions may also have been taken on this expedition, including a Bugis diary from Bone presented to the Royal Asiatic Society by a Professor Lee in 1828 (RAS Bugis 1) and Bugis manuscripts now at SOAS from the collection of William Marsden, including a court diary from Bone (SOAS MS 11398) and a volume received from a Captain Owen RN (SOAS MS 12159).

Collection of fourteen short Bugis poems in tolo' style. British Library, Add 12346, ff. 2v-3r 

The 34 manuscripts now in the British Library are mainly in Bugis, with two volumes in Makassarese, and the contents were described in detail by the Dutch scholar A.A. Cense for the catalogue by Ricklefs and Voorhoeve (1977, reissued in 2014). The manuscripts are primarily concerned with historical, literary and chancery matters, as well as some religious topics. There are 11 volumes of diaries or daily registers from the court, and 3 volumes of documents. Four volumes contain literary works translated from Malay, including the tales of the great Islamic heroes Hikayat Muhammad Hanafiah in Bugis and Hikayat Amir Hamzah in Makassar, as well as Bugis versions of the ethical court romance Hikayat Isma Yatim and Hikayat Cekel Wanengpati, a Malay version of adventures of the Javanese hero Prince Panji.  There are five volumes of Bugis and Makassar poems, including two volumes which contain parts of the Bugis La Galigo, probably the longest epic poem in the world.  A further five volumes concern practical knowledge, with treatises on gunnery, medical, agricultural and astronomical matters.  These include Bugis translations of Makassarese translations made originally in the 17th century of Portuguese works on gunnery and armaments; these are the only known examples of scientific works translated from European languages into Southeast Asian vernaculars. The remaining five volumes deal with religious matters, including a manuscript in the original Arabic of the handbook on Islamic law, Minhaj al-Talibin, by al-Nawawi, with Bugis notes, as well as Bugis translations of Malay works including the Akhbar al-Arifin composed in Aceh in the 17th century by Nuruddin al-Raniri, and Bugis tracts on Sufism and mystical practices.

Treatise on gunnery in Bugis by  Fahalajun Ahmad and Ance' Lati'. Add 12365, ff. 8v-9r 

To what extent does this collection of manuscripts now in the British Library represent the contents of the royal library of Bone? The answer is probably: only partially.  From a comparison of Crawfurd’s collection of Javanese manuscripts taken from the court of Yogyakarta with those of Colin Mackenzie, it can be seen that Crawfurd focussed particularly on historical and literary works and chancery documents, and showed little interest in texts on dramatic performances (wayang), Islamic practice and divination (primbon), or works in Arabic.  Thus one notable absence in the British Library collection is al-Nur al-hadi, the mystical work composed by Sultan Ahmad al-Salih in 1787, and one of the few Southeast Asian compositions cited in Brocklemann's survey of Arabic literature. Futhermore, when the royal Bone library at Watampane was ransacked by the Dutch in 1905, the 33 manuscripts taken to Batavia, and now held in the National Library of Indonesia in Jakarta, included a diary for the period 1795-1807 (Tol 1993: 617), indicating that at least part of the library had survived the British onslaught at Bontoala in 1814.

With generous support from William and Judith Bollinger, the complete collection of 34 Bugis and Makassar manuscripts in the British Library has now been digitised, in collaboration with the National Library of Singapore. Singapore is home to a substantial community of Bugis descent, as reflected in a recent exhibition in 2018 at the Malay Heritage Centre, Sirri na pesse. The full list of digitised Bugis and Makassar manuscripts from the British Library can be accessed here.

Collection of Sufi tracts, including notes on the five daily prayer times. British Library, Add 12363, ff. 63v-64r 

Public awareness of the fate of the Kraton library of Yogyakarta, and the identification of the individual volumes held in different British public collections, owes much to plentiful contemporary accounts and the work of historians such as Peter Carey and Merle Ricklefs, while in Java the memory of the Geger Sepehi, the 'Sepoy Calamity' (so-named for the Indian troops under British command in the attack on the palace), was kept alive at the court of Yogyakarta, the only traditional monarchy to retain a political role in the Republic of Indonesia. Fewer published reports of the Bone expedition, and a circumscribed public space for the descendants of the Bone kings, mean that there is far less known today about the royal library of Bone. It is hoped that the digitisation of these manuscripts will lead to many more studies, and a better appreciation of the writing traditions at the Muslim courts of south Sulawesi.

Further reading:

Brief accounts of the British expedition to Makassar in 1814 are found in:
William Thorn, Memoir of the conquest of Java, with the subsequent operations of the British forces in the Oriental Archipelago. London, 1815 (pp. 340-1).
David Macdonald, A narrative of the early Life and Services of Captⁿ D. Macdonald ... embracing an unbroken period of twenty-two years, extracted from his journal, and other official documents. 3rd ed. Weymouth, [1840?] (pp. 213, 222).

On Bugis manuscripts:
Roger Tol, A royal collection of Bugis manuscripts.  Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, 1993, 149 (3): 612-29.
Roger Tol, A separate empire: writings of south Sulawesi.  Illuminations: writing traditions of Indonesia, ed. Ann Kumar & John H. McGlynn; pp. 213-230.  Jakarta: Lontar Foundation, 1996.
M.C. Ricklefs and P. Voorhoeve, Indonesian manuscripts in Great Britain.  Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977. [With descriptions of Bugis and Makassar manuscripts by A.A. Cense.]

Postscript, 23 January 2020

After the publication of this blog post on 6 January 2020, I was very grateful to receive a communication from Dr Campbell Macknight, of Australian National University, which succeeded in clearing up a matter which had puzzled me: how did the British troops which had landed in Makassar succeed in reaching the palace of Bone - located at Watampone over 130 km away on the other side of south Sulawesi - by the following morning? From the account of Captain Macdonald, Dr Macknight explained that the dwelling of the Sultan of Bone which was attacked was not in Watampone, but at Bontoala, just outside the fort of Makassar (see the map below). Thus the Bugis and Makassar manuscripts captured constitute not the sole royal library of Bone, but the library held at the palace of Bontoala. The blog post has now been edited to correct these points.

Map of Sulawesi, showing Makassar and Bontoala on the west coast of south Sulawesi (circled in green), and Watampone in Bone on the east coast (circled in red).

Annabel Teh Gallop, Head, Southeast Asia section