EAP756/9

Of four monasteries in Utʻ rhacʻ krīʺ village (pronounced Ok-shit-kyi) that still have manuscripts, the collection at Manʻ kyaññʻʺ toʻ kyoṅʻʺ (pron. Ma-gyi-daw-kyaung) is the second largest. It contains approximately one hundred palm leaf manuscripts. The collection in its present condition might be not fully representative of former manuscript holdings of the monastery. Besides the loss of manuscripts due to rodent damage and other natural causes, parts of the collection were likely dispersed. At least one manuscript formerly belonging to the monastery was identified by us at the Universities' Central Library in Yangon (UCL 7420, another rare Piṭakatʻ sa muiṅʻʺ belonging to the same period and context as manuscript AYD-OSK-MKT 002), however, it came to UCL not from Ok-shit-kyi, but from a village in Taungngu area. This suggests that itineraries of manuscript travel could have been quite complex and retracing former contents of the collection is a tough task.

As the detailed listing of the collection still remains to be done, it is not yet possible to provide a comprehensive overview. Large bundles making the bulk of the collection are mostly colonial-period copies of common Buddhist curricular and scriptural texts. Shorter manuscripts are astrological, medical, legal, historiographic, and erudite works. At least from the 1920s to the 1940s, Ok-shit-kyi used to have a manuscript scribe who had been systematically employed in recopying manuscripts for several local monasteries. The contents of some of such copies, e.g. UCL 7420 and AYD-OSK-MKT 002 suggest that the copying effort relied on an archive of relatively early and occasionally quite rare texts.

The dates of surveyed manuscripts in the collection range from the 1760s to 1892.

Custodial history: For the last several decades the manuscripts are stored in the old monastery building. Approximately 60 large bundles, mostly in a good state of preservation, are kept in a large movable manuscript chest in the main hall. Another part of the collection comprised of 30 plus short manuscripts and some ten large bundles is stored in the lower part of Buddha image cabinet in the shrine hall. About ten years ago, this part of the collection was damaged by rats who settled in the cabinet because the building had no monastic residents. After some time, the monks have cleared the mess created by rats by tying up a few bundles that were less affected and discarding more damaged and fragmented manuscripts into two large plastic bags that were put in the storage room. Rats, however, continued to live in the cabinet (as the building still had no residents) making further damage. In August 2013, the collection was preliminary sorted out by Alexey Kirichenko, Ko Thant Synt, and Ko Zwe, with mixed folios put in order, folios that ended up in plastic bags restored to their respective bundles, and bundles having no cords tied-up again. Since then, a resident monk was accommodated in the shrine room preventing more damage to the manuscripts during the years 2013-16. On February 18, 2016, the monastery was visited again by Alexey Kirichenko and Ko Soe Nyunt who checked the condition of the collection and digitized four manuscripts. A full listing of the collection and further digitization work is planned.

Administrative context: Administrative context of manuscripts is not known beyond the fact that they are owned by the monastery and are in the custody of its abbot. The origins of the collection and its relationships have not been established yet.

Extent and format of original material: This collection contains approximately one hundred complete and fragmented palm-leaf manuscripts of which four were digitized in the framework of this project. 4 series.

Owner(s) of original material: The current custodian is Ūʺ Sobhita, the incumbent abbot of Manʻ kyaññʻʺ toʻ kyoṅʻʺ.