Burmese illuminated manuscript

Showing hunting scenes and domesticated animals.

The ms is an early or mid 19th century painted Burmese 'parabaik', telling the story of Singapatta ('Sangthong' in the better known Thai version), a story from the Buddhist Pannasa Jataka-Suvarnasankha Jataka. The story was so popular that it was later adapted and spread in the forms of 'jataka' in the monastic tradition and in the form of tale/performance in the secular tradition. This copy seems to derive from the secular tradition.

Access should be unrestricted but please check in advance of any consultation.

Catalogued by Graeme D. Eddie, 23 August 2016.

The manuscript has a paper label with the name 'W.B. Simpson'. This is likely to be Rev. William B. Simpson B.A., a Wesleyan Methodist who was sent to Burma from Madras in 1885 to be a Chaplain with the British Army of Occupation. He was later (from 1889) Head of the Foreign Mission Station, Madurantakam, India, and subsequently returned to England to be minister at King's Heath (Birmingham and Shrewsbury).