EAP756/10

Ṅāʺ kanʻʹ kyoṅʻʺ tuikʻ monastery (pronounced Nga-kan-kyaung-taik) in Poṅ‘ʺ va (pron. Paung-wa) village possesses a small body of miscellaneous manuscripts that includes one legal text, a work used in preaching, and a collection of liturgical texts used for averting dangers. These might represent the remains of a larger archive of manuscripts once owned by the monastery or merely be items borrowed or inherited from other owners or locations. Our poor acquaintance with the history of the monastery makes it difficult to hypothesize which of these two scenarios is more probable. However, it might be noted that manuscript SLG-PW-NKK 002 was sponsored and produced by a person residing in Hsalingyi, a large village (presently, a town) located a few miles away from Paungwa. The manuscript shows no evidence of dedication to any religious institution. Perhaps, this might be interpreted as testifying in favor of later acquisition of selected manuscripts by some monk from Ṅāʺ kanʻʹ kyoṅʻʺ tuikʻ, rather than of gradual dislocation and destruction of once sizeable collection. In terms of their contents and nature, manuscripts currently kept at Ṅāʺ kanʻʹ kyoṅʻʺ tuikʻ appear distinctly different from the holdings of Tuikʻ sacʻ kyoṅʻʺ (site EAP 756.7) and Capayʻruṃ kyoṅʻʺ (site EAP 756.11) monasteries which clearly are survivors belonging to small colonial-period collections of curricular and ritual texts.

Two dated manuscripts in the collection were produced between July 1882 and November 1897. The third manuscript that has no copy dates might be estimated as dating roughly between c. 1858 and 1889.

Custodial history: The manuscripts’ custodial history is not yet known beyond 2003 when the current incumbent came to reside at the monastery. Together with other belongings, the manuscripts were inherited from earlier incumbents. In all appearance, they were not considered valuable, and no measures were taken to ensure their better preservation. The grant holder discovered these manuscripts literally at the brink of destruction. Items SLG-PW-NKK 001 and SLG-PW-NKK 002, two disorganized manuscripts damaged by moisture and heavily covered with dust, were first found during a visit in 2012, prior to the implementation of the project. They were cleaned, sorted, and wrapped up for better preservation. During a visit on February 5, 2015, a few loose folios forming a section of a third manuscript were retrieved from a monastery temple where the abbot placed them next to the Buddha image as being too damaged. Previously located manuscripts as well as a newly found one were cleaned again and bound up with the covers added. Preserved manuscripts were placed at the first (non-ground) floor of the monastery.

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.

Extent and format of original material: The collection is comprised of three incomplete palm-leaf manuscripts. Two of them were digitized in the framework of this project. 2 series.

Owner(s) of original material: The current custodian is Ūʺ Kusala, the incumbent abbot of Poṅ‘ʺ va Ṅāʺ kanʻʹ kyoṅʻʺ tuikʻ.