string for palm leaf manuscripts?

[Allen W Thrasher]

This is being posted on Indology, CONSALD, and CORMOSEA, and also sent to some individuals.

Does anyone have any experience, or has research been done, into what is the best sort of contemporary string or tape to replace the strings in South or Southeast Asian palm leaf manuscripts?  This has just come up because some of ours are too tightly tied to allow reading, so we must remove the indigenous (or British import?) string.

Thanks,

Allen

Allen W. Thrasher, Ph.D., Senior Reference Librarian
South Asia Team, Asian Division
Library of Congress, Jefferson Building 150
101 Independence Ave., S.E.
Washington, DC 20540-4810
tel. 202-707-3732; fax 202-707-1724; athr at loc.gov
The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Library of Congress.