Parabaik
Sign in to saveThe parabaik (; ) is a Burmese-culture folding book manuscript. Used concurrently with palm-leaf manuscripts since at least before the 16th century, two main varieties of parabaik were used: black parabaiks served as erasable notebooks, and white parabaiks were used for official documents, and as a support for Burmese art. Use of parabaiks was usurped by the European codex after the British conquest of Burma. Historical parabaiks are valued in codicological research for both Burmese state chronicles, as well as examples of ephemera and gray literature.
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
10 sectionsContents
- History
- Use outside Burma
- Related manuscript types
- Construction and use
- Black ''parabaik''
- White ''parabaik''
- Method of use
- Conservation
- Notes
- References
The parabaik (; ) is a Burmese-culture folding book manuscript. Used concurrently with palm-leaf manuscripts since at least before the 16th century, two main varieties of parabaik were used: black parabaiks served as erasable notebooks, and white parabaiks were used for official documents, and as a support for Burmese art. Use of parabaiks was usurped by the European codex after the British conquest of Burma. Historical parabaiks are valued in codicological research for both Burmese state chronicles, as well as examples of ephemera and gray literature.
== History ==
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Parabaik” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.