Tree leaves were used as a writing material in India and Southeast Asia
to record Buddhist scriptures, law, biographical information, and Sanskrit
literature. The leaves of the bai-lan tree (similar to palm leaves) were
trimmed, flattened, and polished smooth with sand. Characters were scratched
on the surface and colored in with a black, sooty pigment. To finish the
book, holes were drilled in the leaves, and the stack was bound together
on a cord or rod between wooden covers. Even after paper was introduced
into Tibet, Tibetan paper manuscripts still retained the elongated, narrow
look of the palm-leaf book.
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