Beyond the major global traditions, there is a wide variety of other regional traditions with different forms and materials used for textual and other knowledge transmission. Only a very few are shown here: a Shan papʻʹ kenʻ book, a khipu, text on a conch shell, a cuneiform stone cylinder, and texts incised on bamboo.

The various Shan minority groups in Myanmar use languages related to Thai, written with scripts related to either Thai or Burmese. In addition to palm leaves and folding books, there exists a rather unique Shan book form, papʻʹ kenʻ, that uses locally produced, one-sided thin paper folios, folded over once, right or left, and then bound together at the top short side. They are then usually covered with cloth. The content is a story written in rhyme.

East Asian Library Special Collections, PL4251.S69 V4 1850z

For further reading

San San May, and Jana Igunma. Buddhism illuminated: manuscript art from Southeast Asia. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2018.

Terwiel, Barend Jan, with Chaichuen Khamdaengyodtai (comp. and ed.) Shan manuscripts, part 1. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2003.

Khipu (or quipu) are comprised of colored, knotted strings, used to record various kinds of numerical accounts, possibly simple formulaic historical annals, or even, as some secondary records imply, poetry. Using mostly a base-10 positional system, such objects could have only a few, knotted cords or thousands of them; this one has 51. The earliest extant khipus date to the first millennium CE, and they remained in use until well after the Spanish conquest (1532–1572).

Gift of Mrs. Gerard B. Lambert, in memory of Gerard B. Lambert, Class of 1908

Princeton Mesoamerican Manuscripts, no. 5

For further reading

Benson, Elizabeth P. “The quipu: “Written” texts in ancient Peru.” Princeton University Library Chronicle 37, no. 1 (1975): 11-23.

Maya writing, developed as early as the third century BCE, has been deciphered to a significant extent by modern scholarship. It was used in so-called codices, or written or carved onto ceramics, wood, or walls. The displayed conch shell, incised with Maya glyphs, was probably used as an ink pot and still retains ancient red pigment. These glyphs record the date of March 17, 761 CE as well as the name of the royal calligrapher, “He of the Holy Books.” This entry uses reconstructed Classic Maya; previously, the reading of the date glyphs was 1 Ahau 3 Sip.

Gift of Frank E. Taplin, Jr. ’37, and Ms. Taplin, 1970

Princeton Mesoamerican Manuscripts, no. 11

For further reading

Bush, Alfred L. “Cover note.” Princeton University Library Chronicle 53, no. 3 (1992): 345-8.

Coe, Michael D. The Maya scribe and his world. New York: The Grolier Club, 1973.

Cuneiform texts were formed by impressing signs on clay tablets using a reed stylus. They were in use for several languages for three millennia before dying out; they were deciphered in the 19th century. This cylinder commemorates the building of a temple dedicated to Lugal-Marada (Ninurta), in Marad, Iraq. As the inscription explains, during these works Nebuchadnezzar II rediscovered a foundation laid by the Narām-Sīn (third millennium BCE). The cylinder was probably used as a decorative element.

Bequest of William H. Scheide ’36, 2015

Scheide MC 94 (=1110)

For further reading

Oracc: RIBo Royal Inscriptions of Babylonia online. “Nebuchadnezzar II 105.” Accessed May 20, 2025. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/ribo/Q005576

Mangyan is a general designation of several indigenous groups on the island of Mindoro in the Philippines, who live in relative seclusion from the coastal settlers. Some of them still use a Indic-derived script (of similar origin as the Batak one shown elsewhere in this exhibition), carved into materials such as bamboo. The texts shown here were likely written on request for Fletcher Gardner in 1938, who had first met the groups as an army surgeon during the US occupation in 1904.

Princeton Mangyan Collection, Mangyan Set 1, slats 33, 34, 35

For further reading

Fansler, Lolita Delgado, Quintin V. Pastrana, Antoon Postma and Sylvia Mayuga. Bamboo whispers: poetry of the Mangyan. Manila: Bookmark, 2017.

Gardner, Fletcher. “Three contemporary incised bamboo manuscripts from Hampangan Mangyan, Mindoro.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 59, no. 4 (1939): 496-502.

Gardner, Fletcher, and Ildefonso Maliwanag. Indic writings of the Mindoro-Palawan axis. San Antonio: Witte Memorial Museum, 1939-40.

Kueh, Joshua. “Now online: Mangyan Bamboo Collection from the Philippines at the Library of Congress.” 4 Corners of the World: International Collections at the Library of Congress (February 1, 2023). Accessed May 20, 2025. https://blogs.loc.gov/international-collections/2023/02/now-online-mangyan-bamboo-collection-from-the-philippines-at-the-library-of-congress/

Postma, Antoon. “The ambahan: a Mangyan poem of Mindoro.” Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society 23, no. 1 (1995): 44-61.

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