Yong Peng: "Jon, you mentioned a parallel Pali-English Tipitaka, not the first
time. To me, it isn't just a nice thing to have, but an essential tool
to be acquired. It, however, will be a very involved task and require
a great deal of effort. The tipitaka.net website can provide the
platform for it if there is enough interest to start with."

I think it definitely doable, of course, some sort of open content license for
editions of Buddhist texts and their translations alogn with proper citation.

In the end most translations are collaborative efforts because successive
translators learn from the mistakes of their predecessors. Rhys Davids,
made mistakes that were corrected by subsequent translators.


Yong Peng: "Even though I am not a professional and still very new to it,
parallelcomparative studies of early Buddhist texts is of great interest to
me. The digital age and the new media it delivers would greatly
enhance the exchange of knowledge and expertise across the world.
Please do keep us posted on trends and events in this area."

Buddhism in Medieval Sri Lanka by H.B.M. Ilangasinha (based on a SOAS
PhD dissertation) which I am reading now, gives the reader a good idea of
the richness and complexity surrounding Buddhist traditions. Many of which
were transmitted to Burma.

I have one paper in the works on the Burmese king Bayinnaung (1550-
1581), relics, and relations with Sri Lanka. There's definitely a mystery in
this case, as the Burmese chronicle claims he received the relics from
Dhammapala, two times circa 1554 and circa 1576, but Dhammapala was
converted to Catholicism in 1557. Bayinnaung enshrined these relics as far
away as the Tai statelet of Mong Mit on the border with Yunnan (a famous
source of precious stones during the Ming dynasty). The descriptions of
these enshrinements are rich in detail and were definitely an important part
of the conversion of the Tai groups to Buddhism. Relics were also
enshrined at places of victory in battle and the tusk of Bayinnaung's war
elephant that broke offin battle was also enshrined. Some people from a
contemporary perspective want to draw lines around what they consider
Buddhism and not Buddhism (enshrining the tooth of a war elephant is
definitely pushing it), but I believe Buddhism has always existed as a unique
hybrid in every culture that has adopted it, the western socially conscious
Buddhism also being one example. Anyway, my goal is just to objectively
document history as recorded, not make normative arguments.