Now that the Chinese Tripitaka is becoming available on the net, another
form of tanha is lifting its head: It would be interesting to be able to
read those texts!

But how can I learn to read them?

My gut feeling says that this would probably take a lot more work than
learning to read Pali, but my gut feelings have been wrong before, and may
be so this time too.

For those who want to learn Pali, we have somexcellent tutors available,
like Warder. Is there some similar tutor for those who would like to have a
look at the Chinese Tipitaka? Is it necessary to start with some
introduction to modern Chinese? I suppose the Tipitaka is written in some
older forms of the language. Is it possible to start directly learning the
old forms?

Lots of questions .... Maybe I'd better give this tanha a solid whack on
its head and stick to the Pali and Sanskrit texts ...

Yours,

Kåre A. Lie
http://www.lienet.no/