EAP756/3

Rhve gū krīʺ kyoṅʻʺ monastery (pronounced Shwe-gu-gyi-kyaung) is a historically prominent monastery. It is associated with the most venerated Buddhist stupa of Halin, a monument whose foundation is ascribed to Indian emperor Asoka. Manuscripts kept there include approximately one hundred and thirty items, all being the remains of several major archives previously amassed in Halin.

The key among those are the former holdings of Mra sinʻʺ tanʻ kyoṅʻʺ (pron. Mya-thein-dan-kyaung), another precolonial monastery that was important by local standards and had the resources necessary to build an extensive scriptural library. Another segment of the collection are eighteenth-century manuscripts that might have been inherited from multiple locations.

The establishment of Mra sinʻʺ tanʻ kyoṅʻʺ is attributed to Maṅʻʺ Lakʻ vai Sundara (pron. Min Let-we Thondara), a famous late eighteenth-century judge and literati, one of whose wives is believed to be a native of Halin. However, available manuscripts do not reflect such presumed venerable origins. Instead, they all capture fragments of history of Mra sinʻʺ tanʻ kyoṅʻʺ in the mid- and late nineteenth century.

The earliest notable component is related to the life and labors of the abbot or abbots who presided over the monastery between 1819 (or 1824) and 1856. This figure or figures whose names we have not yet been able to identify stand out as the makers of the second surviving Buddhist scriptural collection in Halin (the first being the collection of Moʻ kvanʻʺ kyoṅʻʺ). The remains of their canon are now partly kept at Rhve gū krīʺ while another portion is stored at Ññoṅʻ kuiʺ paṅʻ kyoṅʻʺ (see EAP 756.1).

Second layer in the Rhve gū krīʺ collection is formed by leporello manuscripts containing preaching notes and drafts of messages datable between 1852 and 1910. They offer glimpses into the activities of monastics and lay donors associated with Caṃ kyoṅʻʺ, Rhve gū krīʺ kyoṅʻʺ, Ta phanʻʺ paṅʻ kyoṅʻʺ, and other monasteries in Halin.

Finally, the collection includes manuscripts commissioned for monk Ūʺ Teja, an abbot whose incumbency at Mra sinʻʺ tanʻ kyoṅʻʺ seems datable from the 1870s to c. 1913. Ūʺ Teja’s manuscripts represent the last known case of mass commissioning of manuscripts at Halin. This effort took place in 1893-1913, was sourced from Mandalay, and financed by Teja’s relatives residing in Lower Burma. These manuscripts are thus illustrative of social dynamics characteristic of the late nineteenth-century Burma when massive migration of Burman population from established centers in Upper Burma to new rice-producing areas in Lower Burma was happening.

Creation dates: The dates of manuscripts in the collection range from c. the 1710s to 1913.

Custodial history: Though the history of the Rhve gū krīʺ kyoṅʻʺ monastery stretches back at least to the 1870s, few or none of the manuscripts kept there appear to survive at their original location. The current holdings are all stored in a large manuscript chest that was shifted from a nearby historical monastery called Mra sinʻʺ tanʻ kyoṅʻʺ. The relocation of manuscripts that occurred in about 1978 was caused by the death of Ūʺ Javana, the last incumbent of Mra sinʻʺ tanʻ kyoṅʻʺ, and by rapidly deteriorating condition of the old wooden monastery (following the shift, the structure collapsed in May 1987). Of approximately seventy palm-leaf manuscripts in the chest, the majority were produced either for or immediately at Mra sinʻʺ tanʻ kyoṅʻʺ and are datable between 1819 and 1913. Approximately 20% of palm-leaf manuscripts seem to have a more complex provenance and have been to other places prior to being kept at Mra sinʻʺ tanʻ kyoṅʻʺ.

One bundle among these (WL-HL-SGG 042) is labelled as originally belonging to Rhve gū krīʺ kyoṅʻʺ and thus serves a proof that the host institution has had its own collection of manuscripts at one point. Three more manuscripts (WL-HL-SGG 022, 035, and 046) are labelled as coming from Ta phanʻʺ paṅʻ kyoṅʻʺ (pron. Ta-phan-bin-kyaung), a monastery that once stood to the southeast of the Ññoṅʻ kuiʺ paṅʻ kyoṅʻʺ monastery (pron. Nyaung-ko-bin-kyaung). One more manuscript (WL-HL-SGG 017) is attributed to an undetermined location called Maṅʻʺ vaṃ which might be a name of another monastery.

Up to thirteen more manuscripts dating from the eighteenth century have no ownership attributions and it is not clear where they might have come from. It is certainly possible that some of them belong to the anecdotal period in the life of Mra sinʻʺ tanʻ kyoṅʻʺ which stretches from the 1770s to the 1820s, i.e. between the presumed foundation by Maṅʻʺ Lakʻ vai Sundara and the copying date of the earliest inscribed manuscript attributable to Mra sinʻʺ tanʻ kyoṅʻʺ. Six bundles (WL-HL- SGG 001, 002, 031, 034, 052, and 066) are datable roughly between 1708 and 1765 and so could not have been originally produced for Mra sinʻʺ tanʻ kyoṅʻʺ even if the monastery, indeed, dates to the 1770s and not to the 1810s. As these bundles lack donors’ names (as is also the case with the late eighteenth century manuscripts), their acquisition pathways are not easy to infer, but it seems safe to assume that they might have originated from multiple locations and could have been added to Mra sinʻʺ tanʻ kyoṅʻʺ holdings at different points in time.

The archive now kept at Rhve gū krīʺ kyoṅʻʺ is characterized by a conspicuous absence of manuscripts attributable to monasteries that still exist in Halin now or were in existence up to some point during the twentieth century. This suggests that for the most of that period the present collection of Rhve gū krīʺ kyoṅʻʺ must have remained at Mra sinʻʺ tanʻ kyoṅʻʺ and was not actively accessed or reorganized at least since the 1950s or 1960s.

This makes it a different case from a portion of Mra sinʻʺ tanʻ kyoṅʻʺ collection that was shifted to Ññoṅʻ kuiʺ paṅʻ kyoṅʻʺ following the death of Ūʺ Javana. As mentioned earlier (see the description of EAP 756.1), the chest brought to Ññoṅʻ kuiʺ paṅʻ in 1978 contains a roughly equal mix of manuscripts once owned by Mra sinʻʺ tanʻ kyoṅʻʺ and Tuikʻ sacʻ kyoṅʻʺ (pron. Taik-thit-kyaung). The only plausible explanation of such mixing we can offer is to attribute it to the intervention of Ūʺ Paṇṇava, the abbot of Mra sinʻʺ tanʻ kyoṅʻʺ in the 1950s, who moved to Mra sinʻʺ tanʻ from Tuikʻ sacʻ kyoṅʻʺ. Perhaps, he brought some manuscripts from Tuikʻ sacʻ along with him and looked for a space to keep them. Possibly, the chest that was later brought to Rhve gū krīʺ was already full (as it is full now) and so no manuscripts could be added to it. At the same time, the chest that later went to Ññoṅʻ kuiʺ paṅʻ did have spare capacity (and, in fact, still has some of it) and so recent imports from Tuikʻ sacʻ were placed there.

Administrative context: The collection of Rhve gū krīʺ kyoṅʻʺ is owned and administered by the abbot of that monastery. Historically, it is connected to Mra sinʻʺ tanʻ kyoṅʻʺ, another monastery located nearby.

Extent and format of original material: The collection is comprised of seventy-one palm-leaf manuscripts or manuscript fragments and sixty one leporello manuscripts or manuscript fragments. Seventeen manuscripts were digitized as a part of the project. 17 series.

Owner(s) of original material: The current custodian is Ūʺ Janarā, the abbot of Rhve gū krīʺ kyoṅʻʺ. Original owners were the abbots, monks, and novices of Mra sinʻʺ tanʻ kyoṅʻʺ and Rhve gū krīʺ kyoṅʻʺ from 1819 to the present.