[RAS Burmese 85] [List of Buddhist monks in Upper Burma]

language : Burmese

date : 1887?

creator : Mahārājādhirāja Guru

publisher :

European paper. RAS handlist 3 gives: “A list of Buddhist dignitaries compiled by the Mahārājādhirāja Guru for James A. Colbeck …”; columns of figures in Burmese; in latin script on the cover: “from the Tha-tha-na-bexing? to James Colbeck, Mandalay 1st August 1887”. Cartouche inscribed in Burmese: mālāṅkāradhajadhammasenāpati atuladhipatisīripavaramahādhammarājādhirāja guru. This document contains a list of statistics on Buddhist monks in Upper Burma. These statistics were compiled by the Tha-tha-na-baing (also unhyphenated as Thathanabaing), the head of the Burma’s Sangha or monkhood, in 1887 and given to James A. Colbeck. The list is very detailed and reveals statistical information about the administrative/geographical location of monks and their position within the Sangha (how long they have served and their authority within the Sangha). The document is written on European paper that is bound together as a notebook. It almost certainly corresponds to the document mentioned in Colbeck’s diary; see entry for 25 August 1887 in Colbeck (1892) Letters from Mandalay. Within this notebook can be found a loose piece of paper which is undated and contains the following description of the manuscript: “This MSS is one of the two or three original documents furnished (and carefully tabulated) by the Buddhist Tha-tha-na-baing bearing his Seal, showing the numerical condition of the Monastic-Houses of the Royal City of Mandalay and district at the time (or soon after) the annexation of Upper Burmah by the British Authorities. It was given to the late [title?] J.A. Colbeck by the Buddhist Tha-tha-na-baing.” See Jacqueline Filliozat, ‘Survey of the Pāli Manuscript Collection in the Royal Asiatic Society’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1999, Vol. 9, Pt. 1, pp. 35-76. Additional notes from Allegra Giovine.