With Brahmanism and Buddhism, not always clearly differentiated, the palm leaf book spread to various Southeast Asian cultures, using leaves from slightly different local palms. In Tibet the pothī tradition met the Chinese xylographic printing tradition (as seen in the East Asian section). This relieved the restrictions on the size of the leaves, in some cases, as can be seen here, extremely so. Yet, even with the influence from Chinese printing, their palm leaf origin remains clearly discernible in their oblong forms, their double-sided printing or writing, and their stacks of loose leaves between wooden covers.

The Manchu rulers of the Qing Dynasty patronized Tibetan Buddhism at court and especially in their Inner Asian borderlands. Institutions were established to carve, print, and disseminate the Canons, first in Tibetan, and in 1718–1720 also in Mongolian. While the 108 volumes of the Kanjur (or G’anjuur) Canon (still in oblong loose paper format, a total of 50,000 leaves) were printed, thus mass-produced, the inner sides of their wooden covers with saints and deities were hand-painted.

Gest Collection, BQ1260 .K36 1720

For further reading

Ge Laxiseleng 格 · 拉西色楞. Mengguwen Ganzhu’er foxiang daquan 蒙古文《甘珠尔》佛像大全 (Complete collection of Buddha images from the Mongolian Ganjuur). Huhehaote 呼和浩特: Nei Menggu Renmin Chubanshe, 2006.

The Perfection of wisdom in eight-thousand lines is one of the foundational texts of Mahāyāna Buddhism, and is often elaborately produced in large sizes and with precious materials in Tibet and elsewhere to accumulate merit. Gold on blue-black paper (made glossy by rubbing with animal brain matter) can be found in many cultures to underline the reverence for religious texts. The raised gold lettering used for titles is distinctive of Tibet. Similar large items exist on paper, printed, in Mongolia.

Gest Collection, TC513/2184

For further reading

Kapstein, Matthew T. (ed.) Tibetan manuscripts and early printed books. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2024.

Next section