Twenty volumes (3,636 pages) of pattra sutras Buddhist scriptures written on palm leaves, were discovered in 1980 by a man taking care of the cultural relics in Sakya Monastery. Each of the well-mounted leaves is forty centimeters long by four centimeters wide. The palm Borassus flabelliformis grown in India. Although pattra sutras have been in existence for several thousand years, only a few have been preserved and handed down. Te discovery is of great importance for the study of early Tibetan culture and of China?s early cultural exchanges with foreign countries.
