Anisong Palm-leaf Manuscripts for Birthday Celebrations (Luang Prabang): Local Circulation and Reproduction for Sermonic Purposes

Abstract

           Anisong(Ānisaṃsa) is defined as a religious textual genre and a sermon delivered by monks that explains rewards derived from merit-making on several kinds of occasions. Birthday ceremonies are regarded as a rite of passage in which auspicious things are sometimes done to celebrate one’s new age and to ensure fortunate life in the years to come. Evidenced by three extant palm-leaf manuscripts from Luang Prabang producedin 1973–1988 CE and containinganisong texts, anisong sermons were regularly given to celebrate one’s birthday ceremonies. Although birth still belongs to the Cycle of Rebirths which is not the ultimate goal of Buddhism or Nibbāna, birthday ceremonies, despite being secular, could be Buddhisized by means of including anisong sermons as part of the events. The manuscript texts teach us to be cautious of time passing by and to realize forthcoming death, so that we can live mindfully without wasting our time on other unnecessary things. Birthday is thus regarded as a reminder upon. Among the three manuscripts, two were written with typewriters, the other was inscribed with a stylus. Besides, one of the two typewritten ones was copied from its original version, thereby remaining evidence of textual transmission and textual revision. The reproduction of these manuscripts reflects the manuscript circulation culture in which manuscripts could be commonly used as shared objects by several monasteries and reflects the popularity of having anisong sermons as part of birthday ceremonies.