University of Arizona

Students, faculty, staff, and the public are now welcome to visit Special Collections without an appointment from 9 am to 4 pm, Monday through Friday.

Thai Religious Manuscript

This collection comprises a religious manuscript written at the Pumpuang Monastery, Thailand in 1939. The form is that of a "parabaik," meaning the heavy paper is folded like an accordion.

The writing is lengthwise on both sides of the rectangular paper. The material contains 14 panels of handpainted Buddhist imagery organized into seven pairs that flank the text Dominant colors are blue, red, green black and white, with some gold illumination.

Scenes include Buddha, shrines, gods in the heavens, demons, a man in a water-lily pond, hellish scenes of people being tortured, black birds at the edge of a pond, and a couple receiving a gold bracelet from the sky.