A Context of Shan Manuscripts

The Shan ethnic group of people is one of the Asian ethnic groups with a long history of civilization as seen in their rich cultural traditions, arts and literary works. These longstanding Shan cultural traditions of practices have consequently resulted in large collections of Shan manuscripts, which can be found everywhere in Shan communities, especially in the Shan State — in the Buddhist temples as well as in people’s houses. There are very few Shan houses where you do not find a manuscript.

Shan manuscripts can also be found even outside the Shan State such as Thailand, China, Laos and India, where there have been great number of Shan inhabitants for a long time. Today, Shan manuscripts can also be found in the special collections of research libraries, archives and museums around the world. For example, in the United Kingdom, there are a number of libraries, such as the Cambridge University Library, the Oxford Bodleian libraries, the British Library and SOAS Library, which have excellent collections of Shan manuscripts.

Like the nature of manuscripts from other nations, the Shans created manuscripts in their typical styles, features and formats, which can easily recognised as Shan pieces. A significant feature of Shan manuscripts is that they are written on local handmade paper, which is made from the bark of sa or mulberry tree. One distinctive feature of Shan manuscripts is that they often have gold-gilded covers, decorated with floral art works and precious gems, which can be somehow recognisable as Shan style although there may be also some similarities of manuscript designs made by their Asian neighbours.

The contents of Shan manuscript literature cover various areas of subjects. While a large proportion of Shan manuscript texts are on Buddhist topics, some are also on other subjects such as history, folktale, romance, charm and traditional healing and protection methods, such as manuals for making magical candles and tattooing manuals. And, therefore, these manuscripts can be invaluable primary resources of information for vast areas of Southeast Asian studies in general and Shan or Tai studies in particular.

However, it is worth noting that most of these texts are still preserved in the form of manuscript, while only a few of them have been transformed into modern book form. Nowadays, due to several circumstances, the Shan traditional way of making and keeping manuscripts is facing great danger. While the rituals of practices in connection with Shan manuscripts are still continued, the tradition of making and keeping of manuscripts are fast declining. Another concern is that the holdings of Shan manuscripts at traditional temple and private collections are deteriorating at an alarming rate. Gradually the damages of pests, environmental conditions and time, or in the convulsions of fire, flood, or the consequences of civil wars between the government army and ethnic rebels, thousands precious Shan manuscripts have been lost.

This SOAS Digital Library's webpage for Shan manuscripts is an attempt to promote the treasures of Shan manuscript culture to students and researchers and to raise more awareness of the availability of Shan manuscripts as well as the threat to them. One of our targets is to make the digital version of Shan manuscripts from SOAS Collections become available for Open Access. Some digitized Shan manuscripts from SOAS holdings can be explored from here.