Narrative Verses of Sariputra in Dai Script

Qing dynasty (1644�1911), undated, ca. 19th century

Translated from the Pali Abhidhamma-pitaka

From Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province

4 bundles of palm leaves, each leaf: approx. 6.4 x 48.9 cm; height of stacked bundles: approx. 4.6 cm

No inventory number

The Dai people constitute one of the main ethnic and linguistic groups among China's 55 national minority groups.� There are more than a million Dai living in the southwestern province of Yunnan, mainly in the Xishuangbanna Autonomous District (Prefecture) of the Dai people.� The Dai language is strongly monosyllabic, but disyllables also exist, especially for words borrowed from Sanskrit and probably some Austro-Asiatic languages.� Their writing system resembles those used in northern Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar, and four regionally based scripts known as the Na (used in Dehong), Le (used in Xishuangbanna), Beng (used in Ruili and Menglian), and Hao (used in Jinping) are employed.

The Dai people practice Theravada Buddhism, which is dominant in Southeast Asia but not China.� The Dai-Le script of Xishuangbanna is the one used for the recording of Theravada scriptures, including an 84,000-volume set of the Tripitaka.� Characteristic of Dai culture are Buddhist texts in the form of palm-leaf manuscripts (pothi in Sanskrit), an ancient medium for writing that originated in India.

These palm-leaf manuscripts in Dai script contain narrative verses of Sariputta.� They are from the Abhidhamma-pitaka (Abhidharma-pitaka in Sanskrit; Lun Zang in Chinese; Thesaurus of Discourses), one of the three divisions of the Buddhist Tripitaka that contains the philosophical works and provides exegeses of Buddhist doctrine.