25-Century of Tipitaka Technology : From Buddhagay to Lund

From Palm-leave Scripture to Printed Set of King of Siam Tipiṭaka

This documentary in Thai narration with English subtitle, gives an overview of Tipiṭaka technology with special emphasis on the King of Siam Tipiṭaka, the world's first printed set.

"Pāḷi" is an old Indian dialect of the mass, spoken in the Indian Subcontinent over 3000 years ago. During the lifetime of the Buddha, Pāḷi was the Dhamma-language of the Buddhist teaching and thus finally became the written medium of Buddhist scripture, the Tipiṭaka.

During an early period, Pāḷi Tipiṭaka was committed to memory and was committed into memory and propagated orally by Theravāda Buddhist monks from generation to generation. It was first written on palm leave some 400 years after the demise of Buddha or in the first century BC.

The first written Pāḷi Tipiṭaka took place in old Sri Lanka when the entire corpus of Tipiṭaka was inscribed on palm leaves --in Sinhalese script-- for the first time. Consequently, the Tipiṭaka on palm leave was the conventional depository of the Buddhist Theravāda scripture for over 2000 years.

In 1893, King Chulalongkorn of Siam revolutionised the traditional Buddhist depository convention --the King published the Tipiṭaka in Book-form for the first time. In stead of inscribing the sacred Pāḷi texts by hand in old Khmer script, the King ordered a new edition, totaling 39 volumes, to be printed in modern-typeface of the Siam script.

With the efficiency of printing technology of the day, such as, Western printing machinery and local book-binding in Bangkok, these newly edited Siam-script Tipiṭakas were sent as royal gifts to 260 institutes across five continents in 1896.

Lund University Library has discovered one of the King of Siam Tipiṭaka in its collection.

Digital Archives form the M.L. Maniratana Bunnag Dhamma Society Fund's World Tipiṭaka Project in Roman script, 1999-2007.

Tipiṭaka International Council B.E. 2500 (1956) : http://www.flickr.com/photos/dhammasociety/sets/72157600329146593/

World Tipitaka Edition in Roman Script 1956-2005 : http://www.flickr.com/photos/dhammasociety/sets/72157600416138576/

Tipitaka Studies Reference 2007 : http://www.flickr.com/photos/dhammasociety/sets/72157600406425037/

Royal Patron of Tipiṭaka : http://buddhavasse.blogspot.com/2007/06/royal-patron-of-tipitaka.html

http://www.dhammasociety.org

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• pali
• tipitaka
• buddha
• theravada
• Thailand
• scripture
• sacred_text
• dhamma_society_fund
• dhamma_technology
• Peace
• Wisdom