Script: Burmese script. Provenance: Purchased from Rulon-Miller on the W. Edward Archer Fund, December 2018. Manuscript produced in Burma, probably from the 19th century. In Burmese, containing yantra charts and illustrations and red and black throughout. Probably a text on occult Buddhism. A parabaik, also called a pap tup, consisting of several sheets of thick white mulberry paper, folded in 35 panels written on both sides. The panels at each end are attached to black [lacquered?] paper covers. The contents are an amalgam of magical texts on healing, divination, astrology, and the religious belief systems of the Tai Yi, an ethnic group in Southeast Asia. The original owner would have been a sala, a shaman who used it to perform incantations or read astrological charts for clients. Illustrations include a magic square and human figures, some formed from letters.
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