Transformations of Anisong Manuscripts in Luang Prabang: Application of Modern Printing Technologies

Abstract

Printing technologies that arrived in Laos with French colonialism (1893–1945) facilitated the Lao manuscript culture by introducing new writing tools and writing support. When storing and categorizing manuscripts in a repository, librarians began using new technologies such as writing tools and paper labels as well as the Roman alphabet to encode pronunciations for vernacular titles of anisong manuscripts. Monk-preachers began using pen to correct sermonic texts written on palm leaves. Affiliation markers in the precolonial as well as colonial periods were written mostly in the modern script, since monastic lay assistants—who were sometimes responsible for transporting and storing manuscripts in the monastic library—were illiterate in the Dhamma script. Since the modern Lao script was available in modern printing machines, there was a gradual decrease in the use of the traditional Dhamma script. The modern Lao script was thus used to compensate for the dwindling knowledge of the Dhamma script and to accommodate those who could not read the traditional script but were still part of the manuscript culture.