The practice of generosity (dana) and other merit-making rituals are the foundation of Theravada Buddhist temple-building and maintenance in Southeast Asia. Temple and monastery collections accumulated as donations, and stored or displayed in spaces sometimes designated ‘museum’, are some of the richest sources of material culture in the region. Situated within sacred space and supported by local communities, these practices represent some of the most sustainable forms of curating. And the ritual life of sacred objects remains a notable attribute of temple and monastic museums. Yet the increasing influence of international museum protocols is often diametrically opposed to and undermines the very life of these practices. This paper addresses how digital documentation and archiving provides one way to navigate such contentions. How effective is digitisation and new media in the search for a more nuanced experience of Buddhist forms of collecting and curating? Discussion will focus on Yadana Man Aung Pagoda, a royal temple at Nyaung Shwe in Shan State, Myanmar, where multiple spaces of display were documented by the discussant from 2015 to 2018. This work-in-progress is a collaboration between the temple trustee, volunteers, and researchers, to co-curate an open access archive within the SOAS Digital Collections at SOAS University of London. This paper invites responses from conference delegates towards interpretive approaches that aid the development of a multivalent archive; one that accommodates historical records, validates the ritual life of objects, and facilitates ground-up insights into the practice of ‘meritorious curating’.