paper manuscripts (scrolls and booklets)

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

The manuscripts are physically described as medieval paper forms including scrolls, booklets, and concertina formats. Pelliot tibétain 98 is noted as a concertina in 81 panels (p. 301). The construction involves multiple-text manuscripts (MTMs) organized for ritual purposes, such as the Tibetan Chan Compendium, which reflects the logic of platform ceremonies (p. 301).

Evidence

"revealing a cache of medieval paper manuscripts (scrolls and booklets) that had not been seen since the cave was sealed in the early 11th century. The cave, numbered Cave 17 in modern Dunhuang studies, appears to have been a manuscript depository... The manuscripts date from the 5th to 10th centuries CE."

Remarks

The paper in the Dunhuang cache suffered from environmental degradation over a millennium (p. 309). Codicological examination of the Compendium reveals that repairs were carried out by scribes, which involved the total replacement of the original first and last panels, thus losing the original colophon but preserving the internal textual units (p. 301). The transition from manuscript to printed woodblock editions occurred around the 10th century, which changed the transmission of knowledge (p. 308).