Book Reviews

Author(s): J W De Jong
Publisher: J W De Jong

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REVIEWS
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There are quite a few printing errors, especially in the letters written in French. The most disturbing one is Schraeder for Schroeder (no. 274), i.e. Leopold von Schroeder (1851-1920). In his notes to the letters, Hartmut Walravens gives some useful information on Laufer's correspondents. The date of death of several scholars is not indicated. Karlgren died in 1978, A. I. Ivanov in 1937,2 Robert Shafer in 1969,3 and Dubs also in 1969.4 The dates of A. D. Rudnev are 18781958.5 J. R. Ware was born in 1901. .
NOTES
1 Cf. Annual Newsletter of the Scandinavian Institute of Asian Studies, no. 13 (1979), pp. 3-24. 2 Cf. Vostokovedenie v Leningradskom universitete (Učenye zapiski Leningradskogo ordena Lenina gosudarstvennogo universiteta imeni A. A. Zdanova, No. 296; Serija vostokovedčeskix nauk, Vyp. 13, Leningrad, 1960), p. 34. 3 Cf. Robert Shafer, Introduction to Sino-Tibetan, Part 5 (Wiesbaden, 1974), p. IX. 4 Cf. Derk Bodde's obituary, JAOS 90 (1970), pp. 633-634. 5 Cf. Vostokovedenie v Leningradskom universitete, p. 61.
Australian National University
J. W. DE JONG
Burmese Manuscripts, Part 2. Compiled by Heinz Braun and Daw Tin Tin Myint with an introduction by Heinz Bechert (Verzeichnis der orientalistische Handschriften in Deutschland, Band XXIII, 2). Stuttgart, Franz Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden GmbH, 1985. XVI, 302 pp. DM 147,-.
Part 1 of Burmese Manuscripts was published in 1979 (cf.IIJ 23, 1981, pp. 238239). This second part describes a collection of Burmese manuscripts in the 'Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek'in Göttingen, and 22 other manuscripts (Nos. 156-436). The oldest manuscript is dated 1715 A.D. The introduction points out that the collection in the 'Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek', which was assembled by a colonial officer during the pre-war period, unlike most collections of Burmese books, does not consist mainly of copies of canonical Pali texts and aţthakathās, but contains a wide range of non-canonical Pali works, mostly of nissayas, with a fair number of original Burmese works of prose and verse literature. Of special interest are two manuscripts belonging to the Völkerkunde-Museum of the von Portheim-Stiftung in Heidelberg: an illuminated book on the history of King Vijaya of Ceylon, and a record of the royal palace of the kings of the Kunbhon period from the time of King Vhanphrürhan (1763-1776 A.D.) up to the reign of King Sipo (1878-1885 A.D.)
Indo-Iranian Journal 30 (1987).