A LACQUERED AND GILT WOOD AND FABRIC MANUSCRIPT, KAMMAVACA
Burma, second half of the 19th century

The book consists of lower and upper wooden covers and seven fabric pages, all pieces lacquered and gilded, the covers finely decorated with motifs of flowers and deities.

10,7 x 55,8 cm

Provenance: ambassador Francesco Rausi.
Manuscripts of this type were commissioned by the faithful on the occasion of the ordination of a monk. The text - written in Pali - is usually the Kammavaca, a selection of texts from the Vinaya, which concerns the rules to be followed by the monks (R. Isaacs – T.R. Burton, Visions from the Golden Land. Burma and the art of lacquer, London 2000, pp. 78-79, n. 10, for a similar example in the British Museum in London).