The compilation and publication of The Complete Chinese Pattra Buddhist Scripture is a real reflection for the efforts that Xishuangbanna made to protect ancient Buddhist scriptures.

The Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture has worked out a plan to beef up the protection of rare Buddhist scriptures written on pattra leaves in 2001. The 100-volume The Complete Chinese Pattra Buddhist Scripture, an encyclopedia of Dai nationality, was finally completed and published in April 2010.

Some parts of the encyclopedia

The Xishuangbanna Ethnic Culture Museum of XTBG has a complete colletion of the 100-volume encyclopedia.

The pattra tree is a kind of palms growing in the dense forests in the tropical and subtropical regions, with broad leaves and hard trunk. Historically, the leaves were written upon in various Southeast Asian cultures using an iron stylus to create palm leaf manuscripts. The leaves are thick and durable; characters inscribed on it can be kept for a long time. The Dai people used to inscribe their Buddhist scriptures on palm leaves and barks, hence the famous pattra-leaf scriptures.

Pattra-leaf scriptures have recorded not only the scriptures of Southern Buddhism but also the contents of philosophy, history, law, language, calendar, literature, art, ethics, science and technology, medicine, etc., which is an encyclopedia of the traditional culture of the Dai nationality.