Art & manuscripts
The Berlin Traiphum
Eighteenth-century Thonburi / Berlin collection
Unfold an eighteenth-century Thai manuscript filled with forests, waters, creatures, towns, and cosmographic stories.
A manuscript made to unfold
Berlin Traiphum II 650 is painted and inscribed on both sides of a paper leporello that extends for roughly thirty-three metres. Its preamble associates it with a 1776 commission under King Taksin, though the precise history of the surviving object remains debated.
The format matters: cosmography is encountered as a long journey, with scenes arriving one after another as the manuscript opens.
The online section is one part of a much longer painted journey.
At a glance
- 31.95 m
- Total measured manuscript length
- 231 pages
- 121 on one side, 110 on the other
- c. 6 m
- Published Himavanta sequence
- 35v–36v
- Anotatta double folio
The public Himavanta window
A specialist publication reproduces and discusses a section of roughly six metres, chiefly folios 20v–53v. Within that window, Anotatta appears on folios 35v–36v amid a much larger sequence of landscapes, beings, structures, and stories.
This section is large enough to reveal a dense visual world while still being only part of the complete manuscript.
What the painted world gives us
The reviewed section arranges animal mouths around Anotatta, sets creatures and communities along waterways, and embeds individual narratives inside cosmographic space. It is not merely a diagram: it is an inhabited world.
The manuscript’s great gift is scale—the sense that Himavanta can continue unfolding beyond a single page or frame.
What can be seen in the long manuscriptOpen the comparison and follow the sequence.
What can be seen in the long manuscript
| Feature | Published location or scale | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Entire leporello | 31.95 metres | Cosmography unfolds through physical duration |
| Public Himavanta sequence | Folio 20v to 53v, about six metres | Forests, beings, towns, waters, and stories share one panorama |
| Anotatta | 35v–36v | Unequal lake axes and four outlet animals |
| Chaddanta | Within the Himavanta sequence | Elephant landscape carries an extensive numerical body |
| Page order | 121 plus 110 pages | Recto and verso reading structures differ |
How to read a 31.95-metre book
- Begin with the whole-object scale
- Follow the published six-metre landscape
- Pause at Anotatta on 35v–36v
- Compare neighboring creature and settlement scenes
- Return each detail to its place in the continuous foldout
Six metres reviewed inside a thirty-three-metre worldBerlin II 650 gives Himavanta the duration of a performance. Its published section is rich enough for close reading, while the object’s full commission history and unreviewed length remain part of the story.
Thonburi period
A disputed relationship to the 1776 commission
Terwiel argued that II 650 could be the original commissioned manuscript. Newer project work treats it as a royal subsidiary or preparatory copy and the more elaborately decorated exemplar as lost.
Paper leporello
The measurable object
The manuscript is painted and inscribed on both sides and institutionally described as about thirty-three metres long. Detailed measurement records 31.95 metres and 231 pages: 121 on one side, 110 on the other.
Verso fols. 20v–53v
The public window
The specialist study follows roughly six metres of Himavanta. Anotatta occupies folios 35v–36v within forests, settlements, creatures, waters, and narrative episodes.
East · south · west · north
The lake’s direct compass
Lion, bull, horse, and elephant heads surround the lake. Five multicoloured mountains rise around it without an established compass sequence.
Fols. 31v, 41v, and 43v
Three vertical pairings
Kaṇṇamuṇḍa appears above Chaddanta; Rathakāra above Mandākinī; Kuṇāla above Sīhappapāta. These are manuscript axes, not a universal map of the seven lakes.
Fols. 30v and 32v
Narrative measurements and local towns
Chaddanta’s numerical elephant data measure a story-world society rather than the manuscript landscape. The Kelāsa kinnara town is likewise particular to this painted sequence.
Preamble to the 1776 commission
A king, four scribes, four painters
The preamble attributes the work to King Taksin’s command and names four royal scribes together with four royal painters, making collaborative production unusually visible.
Recto and verso
Two sides, two kinds of movement
The recto orders cosmic realms vertically, while the verso extends the worldly landscape horizontally; turning the manuscript changes the logic of the pictured universe.
Berlin II 650
A precisely measured paper body
Folded, the object measures about 8 by 23.5 by 52 centimetres; unfolded, its 121 recto and 110 verso pages extend to 31.95 metres.
A nineteenth-century journey
From a royal family to Berlin
The manuscript likely passed through a descendant of Taksin, Gerolamo Emilio Gerini, and Adolf Bastian before entering the Berlin collection in 1894.
Verso watercourses
Fifteen folios north, thirty-two south
The northern stream extends leftward through fifteen folios to 20v; the southern travels rightward for thirty-two folios to 69v before becoming topographically diffuse.
Folio 30v
Ten elephant families, an imperfect inscription
The manuscript lists ten elephant families while preserving scribal repetition, an error, and an incomplete sentence—human texture inside a magnificently ordered cosmos.
Chaddanta inscription
The white elephant measured in sok
Chaddanta stands eighty-eight sok high, measures 120 around the side and fifty-two around the trunk; six-coloured radiance surrounds six vast tusks and eight thousand followers.
Soṇuttara inscription
Seven years, seven months, seven days
The hunter’s stated travel time makes the elephant realm narratively remote through duration rather than through a modern coordinate or scale bar.
Thonburi court, 1776
A manuscript after catastrophe
The commission belongs to King Taksin’s reconstruction of Buddhist and court culture after Ayutthaya’s destruction in 1767, giving cosmography a restorative political setting.
Notes and further readingPassages, pages, objects, and books for anyone who wants to go deeper
In the sources
Details you can look up
These short notes lead directly to the texts and objects used in the guide.
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Manuscript objectView source
Object form and commission preamble
II 650 is a double-sided paper leporello roughly 33 m unfolded; its preamble attributes a 1776 commission to King Taksin and names four scribes and four painters.
Where to find it: History 8 H8-C001–003, C009
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Manuscript objectView source
Object-status dispute
The reviewed scholarship contains competing readings of II 650 as original candidate versus royal subsidiary/preparatory copy.
Where to find it: History 8 H8-C005–007
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Manuscript objectView source
Reviewed six-metre sample
The public study covers about six metres, chiefly fols. 20v–53v; Anotatta is on fols. 35v–36v and the row is east lion, south bull, west horse, north elephant.
Where to find it: History 8 H8-C011–017
Further reading
Books, texts, objects, and studies
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Manuscript objecteighteenth-century Thonburi object
Berlin Traiphum II 650: reviewed public Himavanta section
Public-study sample, especially fols. 20v–53v; Anotatta fols. 35v–36v
The review controls visible public material, including the Anotatta animal row and lake axes.
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