Any art historian would be delighted to produce a book beautifully illustrated with excellent images from an outstanding collection. In this case, the images are of Buddhist illuminated manuscripts that belong to the British Library, which has one of the largest collections of Southeast Asian manuscripts in the West, with examples collected from as early as the late seventeenth century. Buddhism Illuminated is dedicated to the memory of Henry David Ginsburg, the late curator of Southeast Asian manuscripts at the British Library.Footnote ¹ This is the third book that solely focuses on Southeast Asian manuscripts in the British Library collection, and is written by two current curators, San San May (specializing in Burmese materials) and Jana Igunma (Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia).

The British Library's Southeast Asian Buddhist manuscript collection contains approximately 1,800 Burmese manuscripts. The materials chosen for this book are mainly Burmese materials from between the eighteenth and the mid-nineteenth centuries, and central Thai materials dating from the late eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries.

The book is divided into six chapters highlighting Buddhist stories and texts. The stories reflect important philosophical content—for example, the Buddha's life and past lives—and the texts provide essential written materials for monks, such as disciplines, for performing many types of rituals, such as funerals and blessings.

The introduction presents information about the holdings of Buddhist manuscripts in the British Library, followed by information regarding different lineages, especially Sinhalese Buddhism in Burma (at Thaton and Pagan) and in northern and central Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. It also describes the different types of manuscript formats—for example, palm-leaf manuscripts; folding books (Burmese: parabaik, Thai: samut khoi); tools, such as styluses and palm-leaf pointers; ribbon and binding tape (sazigyo); cloth wrappers, such as handwoven tube skirts (pha sin); and storage, such as lacquered chests or cabinets (tu phra thum). Information on Thai manuscript illustrations includes format, styles, and content (for example, animals, demons, and celestial beings). A manuscript is shown wrapped in a woman's tube skirt (figure 1.22), but it is not mentioned that tube skirts and skirt cloth (pha nung) that were donated by a family along with the manuscripts often belonged to deceased relatives. Traditionally, such items would not be used again by others, so they were donated for merit-making.

The other five chapters appropriately cover Buddhist ideology and other subjects: “Buddha—The Enlightened One” (chapter 2), “Dhamma—The Righteous Way” (chapter 3), “Sangha—The Monastic Community” (chapter 4), “Kamma—Cause and Effect” (chapter 5), and “Punna—Making Merit in Everyday Life” (chapter 6). However, because the illustrations are selected based on these five themes, there is some repetition of stories, such as the lives of the Buddha and Phra Malai.

Chapter 2, “Buddha—The Enlightened One,” covers information and examples of the twenty-eight previous Buddhas and the last ten previous human lives of the Buddha (Jatakas) from the Pali canon before he was born as Sakyamuni. Beautiful Burmese parabaiks and Thai folding books provide examples of important episodes that highlight each story. Note that while Burmese manuscripts have colophons written in Burmese round script that provide the titles of the illustrated stories in detail (see figures 2.3–2.5), the illustrations in Thai accordion-fold manuscripts are small and are placed on the sides with the text in between. (The manuscript in figure 2.36 is clearly from central Thailand and not Burma as stated in the caption.) The images in Thai manuscripts commonly depict the ten Jatakas or the story of Phra Malai, but the texts are of common Pali chants that do not have any narrative to illustrate. Thus the texts and images are not necessarily related and were usually chosen by the donor.Footnote ² One of the most common texts is the Aphitham chet khamphi (Seven books of the Abhidharma), which is chanted at funeral ceremonies.

May and Igunma neglect to point out that the Thai or Pali language in Thai manuscripts is commonly written in Khmer script. Thais refer to this type of writing as Khom. Such manuscripts were donated to temples for merit-making. Thai script was utilized more in manuscripts about topics of daily life, such as divination, medical treatises, and fortune telling.

Chapter 3, “Dhamma—The Righteous Way,” provides summaries of the two most important teachings, the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. Although examples of Burmese manuscripts depict the scenes of the First Sermon at Deer Park (Sarnath) in detail, the Thai and Cambodian manuscript examples seem to focus more on the text in the center rather than the illustrations of a pair of mythical animals or celestial beings on the sides.

This chapter also describes Buddhist ordination manuscripts (Kammavaca) from Burma as well as embellished wooden covers (figure 3.22) and cases (figure 3.28). This type of manuscript was commissioned for a son's ordination ceremony and then later donated to the monastery. Each page is gilded and covered with lacquer, and the Pali-language text is written in Burmese square script. Unlike Burmese examples, Thai Kammavaca manuscripts are quite simple. They are made of palm leaves or paper with wooden covers (figure 3.27).

Chapter 4, “Sangha—The Monastic Community,” deals with both episodes of ordination of the first groups of disciples during the Buddha's time, such as Sariputta (figure 4.5) and Ananda (figure 4.4). Examples of Burmese Kammavaca and other written texts are again included in this chapter. Also covered in this chapter is the interaction between the Sangha and the lay community. Interestingly, monks are shown involved with medical treatments (figure 4.20), divination (figure 4.21), fortune telling (Phrommachat; figure 4.22), and talismans (figure 4.24).

Chapter 5, “Kamma—Cause and Effect,” shows how the manuscripts encourage practitioners to focus on doing good deeds (kamma) by practicing meritorious acts such as generosity, compassion, and meditation so they will achieve nibbana, break out of the life cycle (samsara), and be reborn at the time of Mettaya Buddha. Examples are given of cosmology diagrams (figures 5.1–5.2), and detailed lists of the thirty-one planes (phum) of existence and the sixteen sacred lands of Buddhism. Manuscripts with illustrations of beautiful landscapes such as the Himavanta region, as well as the popular story of Phra Malai, a monk who travels from heaven to hell, are included (for example, figures 5.6 and 5.17). The chanting of Phra Malai and the commissioning of related manuscripts was popular in Thailand until around the middle of the twentieth century.

Chapter 6, “Punna—Making Merit in Everyday Life,” covers lay activities in promotion of merit-making such as alms-giving to monks (figures 6.2 and 6.4); offering of new robes (kathina) after the end of Vassa, the period of retreat during the rainy season (figure 6.5); and other forms of donations such as building stupas (Thai: ceti), monasteries (figure 6.28), and Buddha footprints (Buddhapada) (figure 6.24). Interesting paintings of royal donations of monk supplies (figure 6.8) and Burmese festivals such as the Water Pouring Festival (Kason nyaung yei thun pwe) in the month of May (figure 6.32) and Alms Bowl Festival (Maha dok) are wonderful reflections of Buddhist activities in Burma.

Other interesting subjects included in this chapter are death and the afterlife, because funeral scenes were not commonly depicted. While figure 6.14 represents royal coffins (kot) and funeral activities for merit-making, figure 6.13 depicts a commoner's coffin and funeral chanting by four monks. Figure 6.12 is identified incorrectly as an example of unexpected death. These paintings of Phra Malai performing pamsukula on the left side and seated in mediation in front of a dead body on the right side of the manuscript are depictions of two types of Asubhakammathana meditation—an important meditation practice in which monks contemplate upon corpses and thirty-two parts of the body to learn about selflessness.

Buddhism Illuminated also includes three useful appendices: a list of the twenty-eight Buddhas of the past, the 108 auspicious symbols on the footprint of the Buddha, and an overview of the three baskets (Tipitaka). Even though the book is written for a general audience—there are no footnotes—it covers a wide range of Buddhist concepts, texts, and rituals. Buddhism Illuminated: Manuscript Art from Southeast Asia can perhaps best be described as a “scholarly coffee table book.”