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Conservation and Preservation of Old Mon Manuscripts and Palm Leaves

Nai Maung Toe

Mon Language There are numerous ethnic groups of languages in Myanmar such as Myanmar, Mon, Shan, Karen, Kachin, Chin and other tribes numbering about 135. Mon is the oldest language not only in Myanmar but also in Thailand. It is entirely different from Myanmar. In the Union of Myanmar, there are three main language families. They are Mon-Khmer, TibetoMyanmar and Thai-Shan. Mon-Khmer comprises Mon, Palaung, Wa, Yinnet and Danaw. Though numerous indigenous peoples of Myanmar belong to three different language families as stated above and speak differently from each other, all of them belong to one race which is called Mongoloid in Anthropologic term. Among (135) national races, which live in Myanmar, Mon is one of the national races. Mon includes in Mon-Khmer Language family. They settled in southern Myanmar very early. The regions of Mon settlement was called Ramannyadesa and Suwannabhumi-golden land. To day Mon State is lied in Southern Myanmar and has two districts and ten townships. Mon-Culture and Literature According to their legend, eight years after Lord Buddha Gothama possessed the enlightenment, in Buddhist Era 103, about 500 B.C. Lord Buddha arrived at Suwannabhumi the golden land of Mons region. A Buddhist mission led by Arhat Sona and Uttara was dispatched to Suwannabhumi after the third Buddhist council in the third century B.C. Myanmar chronicle mention about Mahar Buddhagosa, a native of Suwannabhumi made a voyage to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) about 400 A.D and succeeded in transcribing the Buddhist manuscripts in Mon characters. He was mentioned as a first monk who brought Buddhist manuscripts, a copy of Pali grammar, from Ceylon to Thaton and then he translated into his

native Mon Language and wrote a commentary upon it. Mons deeply believe in Buddhism. Their culture and Literature are very rich. In Myanmar, nowadays, the Mon speaking people are located near Thaton and around Mawlamyine and Ye in the villages. There is a socalled Mon State extending from Sittaung river in the north to Ye township in the south. But less than a quarter of the Mon State population actually speak Mon Language. Culture Heritage of Mon People Aniruddha known as Anawranhta was the greatest King of Myanmar in the early Pagan Dynasty (1044-1077 AD). He brought about the first Union of Myanmar. Myanmar King Aniruddha occupied Suwannabhumi (Thaton) Mon city in 1057 AD and carried off to Pagan not only books of Pitaka but also all the Mon architect, artists, learned monks, King Manuha and his royal family. It is very strange historical fact in the history of old Myanmar for a Myanmar second King Kyansittha to have written so numerous Mon stone inscriptions and he did not write his Myanmar language. It is some what like a miracle because Kyansitthas Mon inscription are full of reflective comparisons and so flowery with imaginative vivid expressions. He wrote various stone inscriptions and ink inscriptions in Mon on the inner walls of some early temples of ancient city of Pagan. Mon king Ramadhipati (Dhammaceti) of the Hansavati or Pegu dynasty in the 15th century was significantly influent over the Mons. Dhammaceti was a monk who was educated in Ava (One of Myanma city) before he became King of Pegu. After being the King, he wrote so many Mon stone inscriptions in all over his region of Hansavati (Pegu). One of the famous stone inscriptions was Kalayani Mon Inscription - it mentioned the history of Buddhist religion arrived at Suwannabhumi and how the religion separated to upper Myanmar. King Ramadhipati and his montherinlaw Queen Banya Htaw (Shin Saw Pu) repaired and enlarged the great Shwedagon Pagoda which has a tradition of enshrining the fourBuddha relics to the present size. He also wrote the stone inscription about

the renovations of the Great Pagoda Shwedagon in Pali, Mon and Myanmar Languages. During the Hansavati or Pegu dynasty in the 15th, 16th, 17th century, not only were Mon stone inscriptions written but also compiled on the palm-leaves in Mon language. They wrote various subjects on the palm leaves. Such as Pali-Pitaka, jartaka, Pali-Mon dictionaries, prose, history, song, indigenous medicine, phonology, astronomy, cosmology etc. in Mon version. The old Mon mauscript on palm-leave were copied and preserved by the royal family and in the old Mon monk monasteries from generation to generation. Myanmar was annexed by the British rule in 1885. During the British period one of the Commissioner of Pegu named Mr. Bernard was interested in establishing a free library. About 1917 he could collect the palm-leave from the monasteries in Mon villages. Some plan leaves were bought and some were transcribed from palm leaves to the papers. The cost of the project was used by his own finance to set up a library called The Bernard Free Library. After Myanmar had gained independence in 1948, the government established the National Library. So the old Mon inscriptions and plam leaves are placed in the National Library as a backlog collection. To be long lasting they have to be preserved in air-condition room. But there wasnt any air condition when they were preserved. Nowadays the origin of palm leaves preserved in the Mon monasteries are very rare. Only a few left in village monasteries. Most of them are migrated to the foreign countries day by day, especially to Thailand as antique materials and from here to the western countries. The backlog collection of old Mon manuscripts transcribed into papers are very old and very fragile and some are illegible documents. Some themes are so good and sometime you can find the actual events and important facts in them. There are many items such as literature in the Mon language, religion, historical as well as imaginery. Only very few people among the Mons themselves know a little about it, and very little has yet been done to bring it before academic circles.

From paper to Microfilm According to the National Archives Department project of collecting the rare documents, I microfilmed all of old Mon manuscripts contained in the National Library. There are over 800 subject matters and over 80000 pages and 90 reels of 35 mm x 100 feet microfilms. The duration of this task was a year filming with the MBSO (Microfilm Box 0 size) microfilm camera in the National Archieves Department. I describe about the theme of the manuscripts briefly as an example. In the history of Thaton and Hansavati part one, two third of pages composed about Mon famous warriors King Rajadhirad. In part two it composed about Myanmar King Bureng Naung, Taungoo Myanmar King, under whom Pegu attained its greatest significance. It describes about his campaigns in Thai, Eastern & Northern Laos, and in the Shan States. He is called by the Mon writers Jamnah Duik Cak, he conquered of the ten directions, and there is the eight principal points of the compass together with above & below. Kyak Trai Ba Choh Dcam The Twenty eight Buddhas. In this book, it fully describes about twenty-eight buddhas, including Gotama. Like Blai Bha The Schoolboys Books It argues the pupil to have diligence in his studies and to chose well incidents. It also states the real importance of learning. Raganidanakatha The Cause of Diseases It discusses about the Fundamental of the various diseases and their symptoms. The important thing to begin with is the diagnosis. Gran-gauy Book of Medicine the pharmacopoeia of the Mons. This is the manuscripts of recipe or prescriptions. A copy of the Anjunan from the Indian Epic, Mahabharata and Ramayana. The earliest date is 1017 Myanmar (AD 1655) it may be is a copyists date or original date. The latest date given is 1200, equal to A.D 1838. The dates are sometimes copyists and sometimes original authors. NAD's "Director General gave me the recommend as the following.

"I would like to express my thanks to one of our-senior officers. He can read, write and speak flucenly in his native language Mon. If we didnt get his help, our Old-Mon manuscripts conserved with Microfilm Project would not be completed. I hope the task of our new-project "A guide of transcribed Old-Mon Manuscripts microfilmed and conserved at the National Archives of Myanmar" will very easy to complete by his help. I believe that Director Mr. Maung Toe is the most suitable person for this task. From Microfilm to CD-Roms and digital I got retire from the post of director when I was 60s. My minister appointed me as adviser in NAD because of my duty conscious and had long good experience in NAD. My Director General who came from army didn't have much experience in NAD as he has been taking his post for one year. I, therefore, continued to control the office administration, records management and archives administration. I also got the obligation of transcribing of old Mon manuscripts from microfilms to CD ROMs. The original of old Mon manuscripts are still keeping in the National library as the fragile books. In our country, there are two sets of old Mon manuscripts microfilms, 90 reels each. One set is preserved by NAD and the other is kept by the Historical Research Institute, in Yangon University. We used Digital Microfilm Reader Printer (Canon MS 400) to read and print the microfilms. After connecting it with a modified computer, we scanned the microfilm and put out as CD ROMs through CD writer. As the digital microfilms reader printer model was low it operated very slowly. Therefore, we faced difficulties to change from microfilms to CD ROMs. The resolution and density of the microfilms were excellent as they were taken from original books. When we transcribe from microfilms to CD ROMs, its resolution and density were not as good as microfilms. One reel of Microfilm has 35mm x 100' which can take 1000 pages. If one title of old Mon manuscript is over 1000 pages, one more reel will

be needed to finish that title. We didn't use the rest part of the reel. We took microfilm according to the books' pages. For in stance, we used one reel of microfilm for 3 books, 300 pages each. Sometime one reel for 2 books, 600 pages and 300 pages. To get high quality CD ROMs of Mon manuscripts we opened tiff files. 90 reels of Mon manuscripts microfilms were transcribed into 193 CD ROMs. I checked these CD ROMs thoroughly whether the pages in files were clear enough to read or not. When the pages were not clear, I had to make sure if the original books pages were good enough to read or not. If they were good I had to retake them. Then CD ROMs were organized as the form of files so the subjects in CD ROMs were so complicated. To make them clear lists, NAD needed a person who has the ability of reading in Mon language. I was glad to fulfill the NAD's need. I made a list of the those tittle which are in CD ROMs systematically and reorganized the list of Mon books orderly which were in the National Library and in the NAD. Moreover, I wrote a list book in which include CD ROMs numbers, microfilms numbers, file numbers, subject matters, original book pages. Besides, I made a separate list of 90 reels of Mon manuscript microfilms and 193 CD ROMs of old Mon manuscript. I also copied those CD ROMs for the library of Mon Literature and Culture Committee. Now you can read Mon manuscript on computer. I could finish those task within I took the responsibility of the Advicer in one year. Now all of 90-reel of microfilms or 193 CD Roms of Mon manuscript were transferred into one hardisk. The Condition of Palm Leaves in Monasteries In the early month of this year, my colleagues, archaeologist, author and librarian, and I had a trip to Suwannabhumi to study the laterite stone culture and survey the Mon palm leaves condition. The labrarian colleague and I collected the list of the palm leaves in two Mon monasteries near my native village. One is Pa Auk village monastery which has nearly one hundred palm leaves. But they are stored in bad condition at the corner of one room. Most of them are damage, fragile, dusty and not complete sets. Another monastery is in Yogo village. There

are one hundred and fifty palm leaves. They are stored in a good condition. Most of them are clean, wrapped with cloth and placed in the wooden boxes. We could see two conditions of palm leaves in two monasteries. We Mons have responsiblities for conserving and preserving them. Nai Maung Toe

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