A Monastery’s Treasure Account: Collecting Payment Proofs

This paper studies a notebook manuscript that collects financial log entries, payment proofs in paper slips, and other handwritten documents associated with the scribe who was an abbot in Vat Maha That, a Luang Prabang temple. The manuscript was mainly written in 1959–1966 to record donations of money for electricity consumption of Vat Maha That. The period corresponds to the post-colonial time in which the economic situation was unstable as the Kingdom of Laos had just become independent from French colonialism. With a methodical approach of manuscript culture studies, the author discusses the manuscript as a case study to discuss socio-political and economic contexts in Luang Prabang during the post-colonial time until the Lao country began to be ruled by the communist regime from December 1975 on. The study reveals that the Lao Buddhist sangha relied more on laypeople rathan than vice versa, because laypeople financially aided the monastery amidst the unstable economic conditions in Laos. They therefore donated money with faith, while also encountering difficulties in earning for their households. To prove that the donations indeed benefitted the monastery, transparency in budget allocations was demonstrated through the notebook.