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Palm-leaf manuscripts are manuscripts made out of dried palm leaves. Their use began in South Asia and spread to other regions, as texts on dried and smoke-treated palm leaves of the Palmyra palm or the talipot palm. The practice continued until the 19th century when printing presses replaced hand-written manuscripts. Photo: Tri Thuc va Cuoc Song Vietnam Museum Of Ethnology in Hanoi is home to a unique collection of palm leaf books collected from Laos, Myanmar, and Indonesia. This is a unique way of storing texts, dating back to the 5th century BC in the Indian subcontinent, then spreading to Southeast Asia. Photo: Tri Thuc & Cuoc Song The text in palm leaf manuscripts was inscribed with a knife pen on rectangular cut and cured palm leaf sheets; colorings were then applied to the surface and wiped off, leaving the ink in the incised grooves. Each sheet typically had a hole through which a string could pass, and with these, the sheets were tied together with...