Text and Bitext in Middle Cambodia

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Stone inscriptions carved at Angkor Wat and other Cambodian temples between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries cite or quote from over twenty different Buddhist titles. This talk identifies these titles on the basis of surviving palm-leaf manuscripts in Cambodia and situates them in the broader history of Southeast Asian Buddhism. Most of these titles were transmitted and performed as “bitexts,” including those composed in a bilingual Pali-Khmer sermon format. The epigraphic evidence confirms the primacy of bitexts in Theravada intellectual life during this period, forcing us to rethink the relationship between vernacular and cosmopolitan discourse in mainland Southeast Asia. Trent Walker (PhD in Buddhist Studies, UC Berkeley, 2018) is the Ho Center for Buddhist Studies Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University, where his research focuses on the intellectual history of Buddhist translation in mainland Southeast Asia. He also serves as the Director of Preservation and Lead Scholar for the Khmer Manuscript Heritage Project, an initiative of the Buddhist Digital Resource Center to make over two million pages of palm-leaf and bark-paper manuscripts from Cambodia freely accessible online. His recent publications include articles on Cambodian Dharma songs, Thai literary history, and translation practices in southern Vietnam.

Event Sponsor
Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CALL), Mānoa Campus

More Information
n/a, cseas@hawaii.edu, https://www.cseashawaii.org/events/text-and-bitext-in-middle-cambodia/

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