• Kammavācā (Formulary for legal ritual procedures)
    ကမ္မဝါစာ

Publisher:
  • [1uuu]
Extent:
  • 7 sets ; in box 79 x 63 x 8 cm.
Format:
Description:
  • Title supplied by cataloger.
  • Original Gest Oriental Library collection.
  • Duo zhong wen zi, shou xie, bei ye jing ,xiang ya jing.
  • 多種文字, 手寫, 貝葉經，象牙經.
  • One set: Kammavāca, Pali in Burmese square script on lacquered ivory leaves.
Edm rights:
  • Copyright Not Evaluated
View in catalog:
Curator's notes:

  • Pali and Lanna, in Tham Lanna script
    Northern Thailand, 1897, khō̜i paper

    Kammavācā, containing texts for certain monastery rituals and presented to newly ordained monks, were to reach their most precious form in Myanmar, but were used in less precious materials elsewhere as well. This is a Thai accordion-style version on blackened khō̜i paper with gold ink, between wooden boards decorated in gold and black, which was sponsored by royalty, Prince Ratchawong and his consort, Princess Thipphanet, in 1897.

    Gift of Robert Garrett, Class of 1897, 1942
    Princeton Indic Manuscripts IM 70

    For further reading

    Kieffer-Pülz, Petra. “Kammavācā manuscripts: written artefacts for ordination (upasampadā) as a Buddhist monk or nun?” In Written artefacts in rites of passage: on the material culture of initiation, edited by Jochen Hermann Vennebusch and Karin Becker, 63-86. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2025.

    Peters, Anne. “Die birmanischen Kammavācā-Sammlungen mit neun Abschnitten.” In Untersuchungen zur buddhistischen Literatur, edited by Heinz Bechert, Sven Bretfeld and Petra Kieffer-Pülz, 273-84. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1997.

    Singer, Noel F. “Kammavaca texts: their covers and binding ribbons.” Arts of Asia 23, no. 3 (1993): 97-106.

    A Burmese Kammavācā Manuscript and Its Use in the Buddhist Ordination Ritual

    6:46?

    Trent Walker (Assistant Professor of Southeast Asian Studies and Thai Professor of Theravada Buddhism, University of Michigan)

    Trent Walker discusses the ritual use of a Burmese Kammavācā, several of which are in this exhibition. The Kammavācā is a highly ornamental book, used in the Buddhist ordination ceremony for new monks entering the monastery within the Theravada tradition in Myanmar.

    This video was originally published in conjunction with the exhibition "Hidden Stories: Books Along the Silk Roads" (Aga Khan Museum, Toronto Oct. 9, 2021–Feb. 27, 2022) by "The Book and the Silk Roads," a project funded by the Mellon Foundation, co-located at the University of Toronto and the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. Used with permission by The Book and the Silk Roads project, and Trent Walker.

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