Why was Buddhists scriptures originally written on the leaves of palm tress?

[RedLantern]

I read that the Buddhists scriptures were written,paper had not been invented in India or Sri Lanka.Ordinary documents like letters,contracts,accounts and deeds were written either on animal skins,thin metal sheets or palm leaves.After the leaves were specially prepared they were bound together with string and put between two wooden covers making them convenient and durable.just like a modern book
Why was done?

[metta girl]

Palm leaves are used for writing and painting because of their thin and flexible qualities. From the first millenium up to the 16th centuries manuscripts were written on palm leaves called T?dapatra. Rolled palmleaf manuscripts are called t?msuks and have been used mainly for legal deeds. At least 1084 rolled palmleaf manuscripts are held by the National Archives of Nepal alone. These were written from the 14th century onwards. One of the oldest among these dates from 1334 CE.
Palm leaf provides an excellent surface for writing and can remain preserved in superb condition. It is usually safe from damage by worms and can be rolled into a small bundle for transport or storage. Most of these manuscripts extant in Nepal are written in Bhujimol script. Most of the historical documents of the early medieval period are found in these palm leaf texts. Rolled palm leaf manuscripts are often placed in small pigeonhole boxes made of straw board and bucrum. These boxes may then be stored inside a steel cabinet rack to protect from dust, dirt and thieves.

[Q]

I guess because these were the most common way of written material available at that time and place. Although papyrus was manufactured much earlier... I suppose the technology that was once used in Ancient Egypt was just not available in Nepal/India at that time.

I think palm leaf are not the first material... some actually wrote the sutras in wooden blocks. Of course it proved to be quite inconvenient. The reason for writing on palm leaves could also be because of the cost of it is far less than writing it on leather or metal pieces. Also, isn't it a little inauspicious to write Dharma scriptures on leather when the teachers preach on non killing...

[Jessie Fong]

Palm leaf manuscripts are manuscripts made out of dried palm leaves. They served as the paper of the ancient world in parts of Asia as far back as the 5th century BCE. and possibly much earlier.They were used to record actual and mythical narratives in South Asia and in South East Asia. Initially knowledge was passed down orally, but after the invention of alphabets and their diffusion throughout South Asia, people eventually began to write it down in dried and smoke treated palm leaves of Palmyra palm or talipot palm.

Once written down, each document had a limited time before which the document had to be copied onto new sets of dried palm leaves.[why?] With the spreading of Indian culture to South East Asian countries such as Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, and the Philippines, these nations became home to collections of documents in palm leaf.

In Indonesia the palm-leaf manuscript is called lontar. The Indonesian word 'lontar' was a misspelling of Old Javanese rontal. It is composed of two Old Javanese words, namely 'ron' (leaf) and 'tal' (tal tree). The word 'rontal' therefore means 'leaf of the tal tree'. The rontal tree belongs to the family of palm trees (Borassus flabellifer). Due to the shape of its leaves, which are spread like a fan, these trees are also known as 'fan trees'. The leaves of the rontal tree have always been used for many purposes, such as for the making of plaited mats, palm sugar wrappers, water scoops, ornaments, ritual tools, and writing material. Today, the art of writing in rontal still survive in Bali, performed by Balinese Brahmin as sacred duty to rewrite Hindu sacred texts.

With the introduction of printing presses in the early 19th century this cycle of copying from palm leaves came to an end. Many governments are making efforts to preserve what is left of their palm leaf documents.

The rounded or diagonal shapes of the letters of many of the scripts of southern India and Southeast Asia, such as Lontara, Javanese, Balinese, Oriya and Tamil are believed to have developed as an adaptation to writing on palm leaves, as angular letters tend to split the leaf.

Extracted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm-leaf_manuscript