Societies in much of Southeast Asia, particularly Laos, and India used leaves of a type of palm tree, bai lan, as writing material. The leaves are cut into rectangular strips, and then a metal stylus is used to etch the text onto the leaves. In Lao manuscripts, rubber oil is rubbed into the engraving to darken the text on both sides of the leaf, and each side contains four lines of text. One book contains twenty sheets bound together. A typical story needs approximately five bundles, while an important epic such as the Lao Ramayana, Phra Lak Phra Lam, may require forty to fifty bundles. Each bundle is protected by a textile woven for this specific purpose. The manuscripts primarily documented religious stories, history annals, and, later, classical literature. Religious manuscripts included the Buddha's teachings, Traipitika ( Tipitaka), and jataka tales, the lives of the Buddha. Classical literature reached its height in the sixteenth century and included legends, historical events, and jataka tales adapted to include Lao settings and characters. Buddhist monks created the manuscripts, and temple libraries housed the manuscripts. Palm-leaf manuscripts are still kept in temple libraries as well as in museums in Laos, Thailand, France, and the United States.
Further Reading
Khoret, Peter. (1994) "Lao." In Traveler's Literary Companion to Southeast Asia, edited by Alaister Dingwall. Brighton, U.K.: Passport, 120–153.
——. (1995) "Whispered So Softly It Resounds through the Forest, Spoken So Loudly It Can Hardly Be Heard: The Art of Parallelism in Traditional Lao Literature." In Thai Literary Traditions, edited by Manas Chitakasem. Bangkok, Thailand: Chulalongkorn University Press, 265–298.
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