ИСТИНА

The paper will examine the ways in which the study of local archives might contribute to our understanding of the history of Buddhism in Myanmar and mainland Southeast Asia in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. First, the presentation will explore the current state of knowledge on monastic traditions and dynamics of Buddhist culture in Nyaungyan and Konbaung Myanmar. Next, it will outline how a research on local religious infrastructure and manuscript collections or locally-informed reexamination of sources could complement or help to improve this knowledge. Finally, it will discuss the necessity of preserving the surviving cultural and religious heritage and raising the public awareness of it.