EAP756/2

The collection of Khemāsīvaṃ kyoṅʻʺ monastery (pronounced Khemathiwun-kyaung) is comprised of forty-one manuscripts or manuscript fragments, the majority of them representing curricular, protective, preaching and erudite works. The core of the collection is made of multiple-text manuscripts commissioned piecemeal in Mandalay between 1878 and 1901 and featuring the selection of titles that were fairly common at Upper Burmese monasteries during this period. Another half of the collection includes diverse manuscripts or manuscript fragments accumulated over a much longer time from roughly the 1730s to the 1930s. Despite of more accidental provenance, the focus of that part of collection is largely the same, that is it contains neither explicitly scriptural works, nor historical or administrative documents. Instead, curricular, protective, preaching, and erudite works, i.e. texts instrumental in Buddhist monastic routines, remained the primary concern of persons who collected these items.

Creation dates: The dates of manuscripts in the collection range from c. the 1730s to 1901. Manuscript WL-HL-KMT 040 is datable between the 1890s and 1920s and WL-HL-KMT 012 has a date 1950 which most likely is a mistake.

Custodial history: As is quite usual in Burma, neither Ūʺ Sumana, the incumbent monk of the monastery, nor anyone among his immediate contacts knows the provenance of the archive in his custody. As might be inferred from the study of manuscripts, the collection does not belong to Khemāsīvaṃ monastery originally. The foundation of Khemāsīvaṃ appears to date to the first half of the twentieth century while the core of the collection was produced several decades earlier.

Most of the manuscripts do not have ownership records. A few important exceptions to this are mss WL-HL-KMT 019, 022, and 025. WL-HL-KMT 019 and 022 which are identified as belonging to Khyamʻʺ sā krīʺ kyoṅʻʺ (pron. Chan-da-gyi-kyaung; it is a monastery that previously stood to the southwest of Khemāsīvaṃ). Manuscript HL-KMT 025 was owned by monk Ūʺ Kumāra from Vā chui kyoṅʻʺ (pron. Wa-zo-kyaung; it is another defunct monastery that was located to the east of Khyamʻʺ sā krīʺ kyoṅʻʺ). Ownership attributions on all these manuscripts were executed by the same hand, suggesting that Kumāra had a connection with both sites. As WL-HL-KMT 025 predates WL-HL-KMT 019 and WL-HL-KMT 022 by several years, it is logical to assume that Kumāra has first stayed at Vā chui kyoṅʻʺ and then at Khyamʻʺ sā krīʺ kyoṅʻʺ.

As testified by manuscript HL-SGG 076, in 1900 a certain Kumāra resided in Khyamʻʺ sā krīʺ kyoṅʻʺ. Around 1887, he moved in there from another monastery in Halin taking with him many manuscripts that belonged to his teacher. It is thus likely that Khemāsīvaṃ monastery now holds the remains of what Kumāra brought to Khyamʻʺ sā krīʺ kyoṅʻʺ from Vā chui kyoṅʻʺ as well as the manuscripts that he continued to commission during his stay at Khyamʻʺ sā krīʺ. It is also possible that some manuscripts existed at Khyamʻʺ sā krīʺ kyoṅʻʺ before Kumāra’s tenure.

The most logical explanation of how the archive ended up being at Khemāsīvaṃ is that it probably was shifted there when Khyamʻʺ sā krīʺ became defunct (This happened before the living memory of inhabitants of Halin, i.e. at some point in the early twentieth century).

WL-HL-KMT 012, 028, 029, and 040 as well as manuscripts and manuscript fragments dating to the eighteenth century might have had their own acquisition trajectories which, however, could not be traced at this point. WL-HL-KMT 029 appears to come from ’A rheʹ kyoṅʻʺ monastery (pronounced Ashay-kyaung) in Kyaññʻʺ paṅʻ kanʻ (pronounced Kyee-min-gan), a neighboring village located to the southwest of Halin, but the specifics of this connection have not yet been worked out. Manuscript WL-HL-KMT 040 is later than the rest of the collection and might have been donated to one of the first two abbots of Khemāsīvaṃ.

On visiting the site in early 2016, the project team saw the remains of the archive underneath the raised residential building stored in a manuscript chest. As explained by Ūʺ Sumana, five years earlier, when he became an abbot, the manuscripts were shifted from the monastery’s ordination hall (sīmā) and placed where found by the team. Reportedly, the chest was moved unopened, and no manuscripts or folio fragments were discarded in the process. As indicated by an inscription on the underside of chest cover, the chest was donated to some unnamed monastery by a person bearing a title Maṅʻʺ thaṅʻ Maṅʻʺ lha Saṅkhayā (pronounced Min-htin Min-hla Thinkhaya). The identity of that person has not yet been determined, but the structure of the title suggests a middle-ranking official at the royal court. Judging by its molded-lacquer decoration, the chest could be dated to the second half of the nineteenth century. Most likely, it belonged either to Vā chui kyoṅʻʺ or to Khyamʻʺ sā krīʺ kyoṅʻʺ and came to Khemāsīvaṃ together with the manuscripts.

Administrative context: The collection of Khemāsīvaṃ kyoṅʻʺ is owned by the monastery and administered by the abbot. Historically, it is connected to a range of earlier monasteries in Halin and vicinity. None of the monasteries associated with the collection is known to have a long history, prominent patrons, or any significant functions in administering the monastic community of Halin. They all appear to represent a common type of small residential monasteries with few inhabitants. Apparently, Vā chui kyoṅʻʺ might have been the most important of them, at least in terms of being active in manuscript production. Out of four known cases of mass manuscript recopying in Halin history, the remaining part of this collection ranks as the fourth by size and the third by its timing.

Extent and format of original material: The collection is comprised of 39 palm-leaf manuscripts, one leporello manuscript, and one manuscript made of lacquered stiffened cloth. Twelve manuscripts were digitized as a part of the project. 12 series.

Physical characteristics: The collection is comprised of 39 palm-leaf manuscripts, one leporello manuscript and one manuscript made of lacquered stiffened cloth.

Owner(s) of original material: Ūʺ Sumana, the current abbot of Khemāsīvaṃ kyoṅʻʺ, is the custodian of this collection. In our understanding, originally it was owned by Ūʺ Kumāra and later abbots of Khyamʻʺ sā krīʺ and Khemāsīvaṃ kyoṅʻʺ.