This document provides an overview of Theravāda Buddhist manuscripts found in China, particularly in Yunnan Province. It discusses the significance of these manuscripts within the Dai community and highlights ongoing efforts by governmental and academic institutions to preserve this cultural heritage. The manuscript culture faces extinction due to various threats, which are addressed in current research projects. The Dai ethnic group, with a substantial population, has a deep connection to Buddhism, reflected in their community practices and the reverence placed on their manuscripts. The government and local bodies are actively working to catalog and protect these important cultural artifacts for future generations. For more details, visit dmc.tv.
หัวข้อประเด็น
-Theravāda Buddhism in China -Dai ethnic community -Preservation of cultural heritage -Current research on manuscripts -Threats to manuscript culture
ข้อความต้นฉบับในหน้า
I will give a brief overview of the manuscripts that have been
discovered and catalogued, an explanation of some current research
projects, and I will discuss some of the problems that threaten
China's palm-leaf manuscript culture with extinction.1
I. An Overview of Theravāda Buddhist manuscripts in China
Most of China's Theravāda Buddhist manuscripts come from the
border regions of Yunnan Province in Southwestern China. This
is where China's Theravāda Buddhist communities are located: the
Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Pu'er City, Dehong
Autonomous Prefecture, Lingcang City and Baoshang City. The ethnic
groups who follow Theravāda Buddhism – the Dai, Palaung, De'ang
and sections of the Wa and Yi nationalities – live in this area which is
known in Tai Lü as Sipsong Panna, or สืบสองพันนา, which means "twelve
thousand rice fields." The Dai group, which has a population of more
than 1,000,000 people, is the largest group of Theravāda Buddhists in
China.2 There are Buddhist temples in almost every Dai village, and
Buddhist belief and ritual is an important part of Dai social life. The
Dai people value their Buddhism and their Buddhist manuscripts
highly.
The Administrative Department for the Religious Affairs
of the People's Government, Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous
Prefecture, has set about collecting and collating the Buddhist
manuscripts that are kept in Buddhist temples, the State
Archives, academic institutions and in private collections.
1 The analysis of the contents and scope of the Buddhist manuscripts of the Sipsong Panna
region is beyond the scope of this article, and is the subject of a future publication.
2 Dai people are part of the Tai ethnic group that can be found living in northern Thailand,
Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam as well as Southwestern China. The Dai group is one of the 55
minority groups in China. According to the officially published investigation results of 1990
Chinese Population Census, the total population of the Dai in China is about 1,115,900, and
98.55% inhabit in Yunnan Province, of which those in Xishuangbanna State are 296,930, the
rest are mainly distributed in places like Dehong Autonomous Prefecture (nearly 700,000
people), Gengma, Menglian, Jinggu, Yuanjiang, Xinping and Jinping.