This page lists 174 Burmese-Pali manuscripts that are part of the Southeast Asian Rare Book Collection. As William Pruitt noted in his study of the collection, many of the Burmese-Pali manuscripts were acquired by Rev. W.H.S. Hascall, a missionary in Lower Burma, except for Shan texts acquired by Rev. O. Hanson, who was in Bhamao, Upper Burma. They were then donated by American diplomat William Woodville Rockhill in 1905 (for more information about Rockhill, see the Rockhill Tibetan Collection). Another large donation was made by the newly independent Union of Burma on November 15, 1948. Others who later donated manuscripts to the collection include E. Gene Smith and Mrs. Mildred Goldthorpe.

Additionally, there are over 100 Burmese and Shan manuscripts that are non-canonical texts on magic, divination, omens, and astrology with the large majority in color illustrations. One of the purposes to which they were used was to provide patterns for tattoos of spirits and mantras. Tattooing was believed to provide protection against harm and even give courage in battle. Often these texts do not include a title, an author (even a so-called "copyist"), or date. This makes it difficult to catalog them properly. The records to these works listed below contain minimal information. Please contact a Southeast Asian reference librarian using the Ask a Librarian service for assistance with these works.

Burmese rare books span Buddhist works from the Tripitaka and Jatakas to works on Burmese independence leader Aung San. They also include over twenty Christian missionary works in Burmese, Chin, Karen, Khün, Mon and Shan.

Among rare Burmese ephemera, the "World War II Records from Burma" is a unique collection donated by the Union of Burma. The collection consists of documents including public and private correspondence, financial/legal records and correspondences of police and military officials, newspaper clippings, and documents once held by the Burma Corporation Ltd. The collection also contains a large number of documents regarding the Indian Independence League (IIL)/ Indian National Army (INA), including a census and volunteer roles for the IIL. The documents are predominantly in English and Burmese but there are also documents in Hindi, Bengali, Urdu and Japanese. A finding aid is available. See further a related blog.

For additional resources on these texts, please consult the following works. The journals cited below link to fuller bibliographic information in the E-Resources Online Catalog.

• Hobbs, Cecil C., "Burma's Gift to America," Quarterly Journal of Current Acquisitions, Vol. 7, No. 2 (February 1950): 7-10.
• Pruitt, William, "Burmese Manuscripts in the Library of Congress, Washington D.C.," Journal of the Pali Text Society, Vol. XIII (1989): 1-32.
• Pruitt, William, "Additions to the Burmese Manuscripts in the Library of Congress, Washington D.C.," Journal of the Pali Text Society, Vol. XXIV (1998): 171-184.

See further Horace Poleman, A census of Indic manuscripts in the United States and Canada. This title lists some of these Burmese-Pali manuscripts.