Thai Buddhist adventure tales

[Buddhism - Phra Malai]. Phra Malai Kham Luang [The Fable of Phra Malai].

€ 6,500.00

A lovely Thai Buddhist folding book (samut khoi), with excerpts from the legend of the Phra Malai, a beloved adventure fable of the Theravada Buddhist tradition, whose story often appears alongside other popular Buddhist tales. This manuscript opens its two main sections (split into the recto pages and verso pages of the folding book) with beautiful gold ink calligraphy on a field of black, flanked by particularly fine paintings on each side of the text.

In 19th century Thai Buddhist communities, a fine folding book like this one might be commissioned for a funeral celebration where monks would give a theatrical reading of Buddhist tales and Phra Malai's adventures. Such folding books are an integral part of the manuscript traditions of Buddhists not only in Thailand, but also Cambodia, Laos, Burma, and Sri Lanka, likely originating in the latter, and are often called 'khoi books' after the bark paper from which they are made (another common term used in English is parabike, from Cambodian).

The legend of Phra Malai itself is based on an earlier Pali story, but in the Thai manuscript tradition, Phra Malai appears in the vernacular, written in Thai and usually in the Thom Kai script, a variant of Khmer script, but which includes Thai tone markers. This manuscript was probably one of many commissioned by the family of a deceased loved one, as a traditional offering to gather merit for a soul navigating hell and reincarnation.