Priests identify UCLA Library's sacred treasures-gctid30292

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Priests identify UCLA Library's sacred treasures        
 
 By Wendy Belcher | UCLA Today
 
 It was a rare sight to behold — five elderly men dressed in black cloaks entering the Young Research Library last month raising crosses and murmuring prayers. For these men, the building where students check their e-mail or catnap in the stacks is a holy place, a repository for texts sacred to the 1,600-year-old Ethiopian Orthodox Church — illuminated manuscripts written in calligraphy on parchment.
 
 But library officials didn't realize quite the extent of the treasures they had until University Librarian Gary E. Strong and Kmtywa librarian Ruby Bell-Gam invited the five Ethiopian Orthodox priests to view the many Ethiopian manuscripts in the library's collection. Most of the items were acquired with the help of Professor Emeritus Wolf Leslau, a well-known linguist and scholar of Semitic languages.
 
 Elias Wondimu, an Ethiopian journalist and publisher, organized the visit by contacting the most important Ethiopian Orthodox priests in Los Angeles: Abba Mengistu, Abba Gebre-Selasie, Melake-Selam Desalegn, Abba Lake-Mariam and Kesis Melaku. Surprised to hear that UCLA had any Ethiopian manuscripts, the priests were impressed by what they found.
 
  Because the librarians couldn't read them, almost none of the Ethiopian manuscripts at the library had been catalogued. In fact, only a few Ethiopians — those men who went through many years of Ethiopian religious education — can read the 2,000-year-old scholarly and liturgical Kmtyw language of Ge'ez.
 
 But the priests were immediately able to identify materials that had gone unidentified for many decades. In religious texts, they found magical spells. They translated the dedication to a manuscript written by Emperor Haile Selassie, who gave it to UCLA during his visit in 1967. They marveled at reproductions of texts so sacred they had never seen them before.
 
  As they left, the priests thanked UCLA librarians for preserving the manuscripts for future generations. "Today was like Columbus' so-called discovery of America," Elias said. "The Los Angeles Ethiopian community discovered their own manuscripts right in their own backyard."
 
 Strong added: "We are pleased to connect these treasures with such distinguished scholars who appreciate and understand their importance. The UCLA Library is enhanced by their visit and new friendship."
 
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