Notes on Printing Press and Pali Literature in Burma

Authors

  • Aleix Ruiz-Falqués independent scholar

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13135/1825-263X/2267

Keywords:

Pali, Buddhism, Burma, printing, press, missionary, Tipiṭaka

Abstract

Beginning with a general reflection on the meaning of “printing revolution”, this paper offers a series of meditations about the role of printing culture in Buddhist Burma. In China and in Tibet, an indigenous printing tradition based on woodblock printing developed over the centuries, much earlier than in Europe. A similar technology, however, was also used in pre-Gutenberg Europe for printing the so-called “Bibles for the poor” (Biblia pauperum). I argue that we should differentiate the Gutenberg printing press from other reprographic means, even movable types. Burma has an almost uninterrupted history of relationships with China. Notwithstanding this vicinity, Burma has not developed any kind of reprographic technology. Manuscript culture, on the contrary, has been intensively cultivated at least since the Pagan period, 11th-13th centuries C.E. To judge from epigraphic records, the production of written texts in medieval Burma was extremely costly, for it demanded a great quantity of human labor. The profession of scribe was well known and well appreciated. Monasteries were usually endowed with scribes who would care for the replenishment of the library. The writing tradition was not static. It gained in strength over the centuries. And at the time of British annexation, literacy rates in Burma were higher than in England –without any intervention of the printing press. Even in modern times, two hundred years after the introduction of printing technology in Burma, the name for “literature” in Burmese continues to be “palm-leaf text” (sa-pe) and the manuscript imaginaire is still deeply related to Buddhism. The aim of this paper is to problematize printing culture from a particular, local perspective, and link it to the nature of its preceding manuscript tradition.

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Author Biography

Aleix Ruiz-Falqués, independent scholar

Aleix Ruiz-Falqués, BA Classics University of Barcelona, MA Sanskrit University of Pune, PhD South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge. My research focuses on Pali Literature and Buddhism in South and Southeast Asia. At present I work on a new critical edition of the Dīgha Nikāya at the Dhammachai Institute in Bangkok.

References

Hultzsch, Eugen. 1911. Kalidasa’s Meghaduta. Edited from Manuscripts with the Commentary of Vallabhadeva and Provided with a Complete Sanskrit-English Vocabulary. London: Royal Asiatic Society.

Lammerts, Christian. 2010. “Notes on Burmese Manuscripts: Texts and Images” Journal of Burma Stu-dies 14, Northern Illinois University: 229-254.

Mallinson, James. 2006. Messenger Poems by Kālidāsa, Dhoyī and Rūpa Gosvāmin. New York: New York University Press / JJC Foundation.

Mason, Francis. 1868. A Pali Grammar on the Basis of Kachchayano with Chrestomathy & Vocabulary. Toun-goo: Institute Press.

McLuhan, Marshall. 1962. The Gutenberg Galaxy. Toronto: The University of Toronto Press.

McLuhan, Marshall. 2001. Understanding Media. New York: Routledge.

Myint-U, Th. 2001. The Making of Modern Burma. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Shwe Wa, Maung, Genevieve Sowards, and Erville Sowards. 1963. Burma Baptist Chronicle. Rangoon: Board of Publications, Burma Baptist Convention.

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Published

2018-11-19

Issue

Section

Change of Paradigms and Mechanical (Re)discoveries: Manuscript and Print Cultures across Asia