The Lao Recitation YouTube channel of the National Library of Laos

Southeast Asia Library Group (SEALG)

The Lao Recitation YouTube channel of the National Library of Laos recently went online, containing over 100 hours of traditional recitation and interviews with reciters. All recordings will also be available in the Digital Library of Lao Manuscripts, where some are readings of manuscripts and can be listened to while viewing images of the texts. This will greatly assist in the study of the texts and in learning to read the more complex scripts which are restricted to manuscript use and typically unreadable without training. The channel is also an excellent learning resource for Lao monks and novices who are training in the recitation of texts. More recordings will be added over the coming months. The project was kindly supported by the German Embassy, Vientiane. The project team comprised David Wharton, Bounchan Phanthavong, Bouasy Sypaseuth, and Nouphath Keosaphang.

Image of a Lao palm-leaf manuscript on the cover page of…

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Southeast Asia in historical photographs: Vietnam

Southeast Asia Library Group (SEALG)

The National Overseas Archives in Aix-en-Provence (ANOM) have opened up to the public an ever growing online database called Base Ulysse, thereby making a variety of digitised materials from the Archives and their library available for research. Begun in 2002, this database currently makes available well over 45,000 individual photographs, albums, postcards, posters, drawings and maps.

These materials document on one side the history of the French colonial empire in general, but on the other side they are a rich source for the study of the cultures, traditions and everyday life in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in historical perspective. The materials mainly originate from public records (state secretariats and departments that managed French colonial territories from the seventeenth century until the mid-twentieth century, general government offices, etc.) and private archives, but also from donations, purchases, and bequests.

The digital collection contains over 3000 photographs from Vietnam which…

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Buddhist manuscript textiles: Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia Library Group (SEALG)

The current exhibition on Buddhism at the British Library (25 October 2019 – 23 February 2020) focuses on Buddhist manuscripts and early printed works, and how they helped to spread Buddhism across Asia and beyond. During the curation process, an unexpected number of manuscript textiles came to light. These are textiles that are used to wrap around manuscripts to protect them from damage and dust, but also textiles that contain information about manuscripts, bags for the storage and transport of manuscripts and textiles attached to manuscripts. Often the textiles are custom-made for one particular manuscript, and in this case these cloths could be made from valuable hand-woven silk brocades, colourful printed cotton or imported materials like chintz and damask. Specially designed textiles were commissioned to add meritorious value to a manuscript or an entire set of manuscripts. However, sometimes discarded textiles like clothing, complete or partial wall hangings or leftover…

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Tribal Music Asia – An online source for traditional music, ceremonies, and culture of the ethnic groups of Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia Library Group (SEALG)

Created by American researcher, documentarian, and musician Victoria Vorreiter for over a decade, Tribal Music Asia is the home of the Resonance Project, a dynamic multi-media archive that aspires to record and preserve the traditional musical heritage of the indigenous peoples living in the mountains of Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, and China, who have depended for millennia on “the mother tongue method” to transmit their ancestral knowledge, history, and beliefs. Numbering over 130 groups and subgroups, most of these communities continue to live close to the earth, to practice animism, and to maintain a vital oral tradition. Culturally and sonically, this is one of the most extraordinary places on the planet.

Xob Lwm Vaj and Friends
Performing the Qeej at the New Year Festival
at Ban Tan, Phongsali Province, Laos
December 2005.
Copyright: Victoria Vorreiter

By interweaving a variety of visual, aural, and tactile components, the Resonance Project spotlights these highlanders’…

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Digital Library of Northern Thai Manuscripts

Southeast Asia Library Group (SEALG)

The University of Pennsylvania and National Library of Laos have launched the Digital Library of Northern Thai Manuscripts as a resource for the study of traditional literature from this region. At present, the digital library contains images of over 4,200 manuscripts which can be searched and viewed online or freely downloaded, and to which more manuscripts will be added subsequently.

The database contains four collections: digitised microfilms from the Preservation of Northern Thai Manuscripts Project (with permission of Chiang Mai University Library), digitised microfilms and also handwritten copies of manuscripts made in the early 1970s during research conducted by Harald Hundius, and directly-digitised manuscripts made during the current digital library project.

A gallery with images from temples which were involved in the project, as well as a collection of written and online resources for further study complement the database.

All digitisation was funded by the German Federal Foreign Office, and…

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Shan Manuscripts in the UK

Southeast Asia Library Group (SEALG)

An interesting article with the title “An Introduction to the World of Shan Manuscripts” by our member Jotika Khur-Yearn has appeared on the blog of the SOAS Subject Librarians. It gives a short overview of the Shan manuscript tradition and collections of Shan manuscripts in the UK. Jotika is currently working on an exhibition of Shan manuscripts which will be on display at the Wolfson Gallery of the SOAS Library in London in November and December 2014. More details about the upcoming exhibition will follow on this blog nearer the time.

Detail of a cover of a Shan folding book (pap tup) held at the British Library (Or.12040)

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Illustrated manuscript of Thai poetry

An amazing illustrated manuscript of Thai poetry can be viewed online on the World Digital Library website.
This Thai folding book (samut khoi), which is being kept at the Bavarian State Library in Munich (Bayrische Staatsbibliothek), dates from the second half of the 19th century. It contains poems by an unknown author. The poems tell of the loss of a beloved woman. Not only is each poem a work of art in itself, many of them are also accompanied by illustrations of outstanding quality showing mythological figures and motifs from Thai literary works, including the Ramayana.

To view a fully digitised copy of the manuscript, please view the WDL website.

Nora dance performance at German Oriental Studies Conference in Münster

On occasion of the 32. German Oriental Studies Conference Kanit Sripaoraya, a Thai researcher and dancer, performed part of a traditional Nora dance.

Nora is a traditional dance of South Thailand (also known as “Chatri”), whose origins lie in the legend of Manohra and Sudhana. There are many different local versions of this legend. The choreography of the Nora dance varies from region to region, but is generally composed of 12 positions and 17 movements. Nora dance performances usually last several days and include rituals of paying respect to the Nora teachers and the invitation of ancestors.

Nora performance at a workshop at Walailak University, Nakhon Si Thammarat (courtesy of Kanit Sripaoraya)

To ensure that the Manora dance is preserved as a national heritage, Thai authorities on cultural matters are speeding up the registration of the performance to be listed by United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)’s Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage.