Stamp showing Ho Tai (Palm leaf manuscripts library)
Lao Buddhist Old Palm Leaf Manuscripts
From the beginning of the Buddhism creation in India, palm leaves were used as material for the Buddhist manuscripts. They were used to record actual and mythical Buddhist narratives as well as other information such as traditional medicine methods, astrological maps, prayers, ancestral legends etc.
Laos has a huge collection of palm leaf manuscripts dating back to the ancient Kingdom of Lan Xang in the 15th century. The collection kept in 2,800 Buddhist Wats’s Ho Tai (Libraries) in all over Laos. beside religious texts, the manuscripts contains many works in fields such as history, traditional law, poetry, legends, traditional customs, traditional medicine grammar, lexicography etc. The “Lao-German Preservation of Lao Manuscripts Programme” works to preserve and digitise the old Lao palm leaf manuscripts.
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