This manuscript pertains to the origin of the five Buddhas: Kakusandho Buddha, Konākhamana Buddha, Kassapa Buddha, Guotama Buddha, and Srī Ariya Metteyya Buddha whose mother was a white crow. The white crow laid five eggs on a tree close to the river. One day, the eggs were blown away by the storm and fell on a riverflow taking the eggs to different places. Each egg was taken care of by a hen, a cow, a Nāga, a laundry woman, and a ruler. Later, the eggs were hatched to five boys. When they grew up, they were ordained and cultivated the perfections (pāramī). One day, they met each other and asked about their origins until they realized that they had the same mother who was a white crow and passed away. Therefore, they spined cotton as a crow’s foot and placed it on a pot filled with oil in commemoration of their mother.
Colophon:
ယံလိဝ် သိပ်တ်ံ မိုဝ်လဝ် ႁဝ်ႁႃ ဢဝ်မိုၼ်ႁွၼ်သိင် ၼၵ်ၵႃ
ပ်ံမုၺ်ၽုံ ဝႆသူၼႆ၊၊ ႁႃၶုဝ်လိၵ်ယႃ သွင်ပႃ ၶႃ႞ တုယုိင် ဢံပိုင် ဢၶျပ်တယႃ ၵျႃပႂင် ပၼ်ၵူ မုဝ်ၶံ၊၊ ေတႃ်ၼႆ ႁင်ႁႃ လႆမႃ ၵံဢိၵ် မုိၵ်တင်ေၸ် ၸိၵ်ၵူ တၼ်ထိဝ် ၊၊ ၶိၺ်ႁႂ်တင်လီ ၸုင်ယၼ်
ၶီၽၼ်သင်ေရ် ၊၊ ၵုသုဝ်ဢွၼ်ႁွတ် မိုင်ေြမ် ၼိပ်ပၼ်ၽုင် တီတိင် လိုတ မုၼ်႟မုၼ်ေၼႃ် ၊၊
ႁိင်ၼိုင် င်ပၵ်ႁုၵ်သိပ်သီ လိုၼ်ၸိင် မ်ႂသွင်ၶံ
I put my hands together above my head as a crest of Nāga on a bun. I put my hands with ten fingers as a lotus to pay homage to the Triple Gems. May the merit derived from copying this manuscript keep me away from sufferings and support me to reach Nibbāna.
Cūḷasakarāja 1264, the first [lunar] month, the second day of the waxing moon.
Remark: This date corresponds to 1264 Margasirsha 2.
Other notes:
This stab-stitched-bound manuscript is in a square shape. The manuscript is severely damaged by insects.
(The inner flyleaf)
I put my hands together to pay homage to the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha. May I copy this manuscript without any mistake and get the merit in every future life. When Buddha Metteyya arrives in the future, may I become a disciple of the Buddha and reach Nibbāna.
This manuscript was copied from the original version written by Care Cantā of Müang Sòng and sponsored by Nāi Phrā Takā Kham Sai.