Shan Buddhist likʻ̐ lūṅʻ manuscripts in UK and SE Asian collections

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Help

This page provides information on searching and browsing the catalogue. For information on how to order material, please refer to the websites of individual institutions. For example, for Oxford University manuscripts see their Order special collections page.

Browsing

You can browse the catalogue by clicking on the following buttons:

  • Manuscripts (identified by their classmarks/shelfmarks)
  • Works
  • People (personal names)

Browsing by institution can be accomplished using links on the home page, or by using filters when browsing either manuscripts and works.

Results can also be filtered in other ways using the "Limit results by" options on the left, such as by language, century (in the Gregorian calendar), or role (for people).

Searching

For a simple search, type your query into the search box at the top of every page and press enter. You can then filter your search results as explained above.

To search for something specific click one of the three buttons - manuscripts, works or people - then enter your search terms.

Search tips

Search terms can be entered in all languages and scripts present in the records. For searching in Roman script please use the LC transliteration standard. Diacritical signs may be omitted. For example, instead of Satipaṭṭhāna you can type Satipatthana.

You can use additional formatting to more precisely define your search query. These include:

  • Quotation marks (")

    • You can place quotation marks around multiple words so that only that specific phrase will be found. Sutta commentaries (without quotes) produces many more results than "Sutta commentaries" (with quotes)

  • Boolean operators (AND / OR)

    • You can combine words into groups using these logic operators and brackets. For example you could search for Buddha AND (Sutta OR Vinaya) which will find only records containing Buddha and either Sutta or Vinaya (or all three).

  • Plus (+) / Minus (-)

    • With the plus and minus you can define which phrases must be found and those which must not be found. For example Buddha -Buddhanussati will return everything with containing the word Buddha except records containing buddhānussati.

  • Wildcards (*,?)

    • You can use wildcard values to match only part of words. A question mark (?) will match a single character while the asterisk (*) will match one or more characters. A search for buddh* will match words like Buddha, Buddhavaṃsa and buddhānussati. Generally, you don't have use wildcards to account for plural/singular versions, and other common forms of English words, so searching for commentary also matches the word commentaries, and vice versa.

  • Combinations

    • You can combine these options into a single query, such as (buddh* -buddhanussati) AND commentary. This will find records containing words beginning with "buddh", except for the word "buddhānussati", that are commentaries.