Bottom cover, from a Manuscript of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita-sutra)
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From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
14
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
You see a long, narrow wooden cover painted with two seated figures under a red arch. Gold leaf shines on their halos and the tiny flowers around them. This is the top cover of a palm-leaf book from Nepal, made in 1119. The pages were stacked like a deck of cards and flipped up and down, not side to side. The hole on the left side held a peg that kept the whole book together. Look up more palm-leaf manuscripts from eastern india, bihar, vikramashila monastery. painting: nepal, kathmandu.
