Exhibition: "Thai Buddhist Tales" | Ireland

The Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, presented "Thai Buddhist Tales: Stories along the Path to Enlightenment" from 14 June 2019 to 26 January 2020, showcasing sixty 18th-19th century Thai Buddhist manuscripts from one of the finest such collections outside Thailand.

The illustrated folding books — used by monks as teaching aids and recited during ceremonies, often commissioned to earn religious merit at funerals — depict popular stories like the Buddha's birth tales and the legend of the monk Phra Malai. The exhibition explained traditional manuscript-making techniques: incised, soot-inked palm-leaf folios bound with cord between wooden covers, and paper "samut khoi" accordion books made from khoi/mulberry bark, sometimes decorated with lacquer and gold.

Supported by the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation. Details at chesterbeatty.ie/exhibitions/thai-buddhist-tales/.