Antique. Burmese Tattoo Book, Manuscript

Antique Burmese Tattoo Book

The art of tattoo in Southeast Asia, especially in Burma, encompasses ritual as well as decoration. Acquiring tattoos at the Buddhist Temple would ensure the owner of protection, a permanent talisman, or give the warrior further courage in battle, as well as be a culturally decorative adornment.

This wonderful tattoo book is from the late 19th/early 20th century and covered on both sides of the foldout mulberry (saa) paper with sacred symbols of the zodiac and mythology, as well as numerology and sacred Buddhist texts. The book has 18 pages all illustrated on both sides with white steatite. The tattoo book has some expected age deterioration (there is some loss to several edges of pages - one detail below, and a couple pages with small holes) to the pages from time, but not interfering with the integrity of this wonderful manuscript. Only a few of the exceptional illustrations are shown below!

Measurements: Closed: 14" x 4 7/8", Open: 14" x 86 "

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