Thai Tipitaka edition

Dear Rett,

Regarding the Mahaasangiiti

Even now, the e-version of the Mahaasangiiti text is being delayed, and I suspect one of the reasons is this sort of suspicion about new media somehow 'cheapening' the text.

This issue came recently up in the Yahoo Pali Forum too. Basically, this
project is a Thai royal prestige project and I don't expect it to come
on the internet in the forseeable future. As far as I understand first
one thousand sets will have to be distributed to universities and other
institutions around the world. A Thai delegation will have to go to each
of these places, stay in 5 star hotels, give glamourous presentations
and dinners. So far they have only distributed a handful so there will
still be a while to go... From the presentation I watched in a five star
hotel in Kandy in November 2003 it seems to me that they regard the
Tipitaka as a delicate object of worship to be handled carefully with
silk gloves and stored in a glass case to be worshipped, rather than
used... This seems to be a common attitude in Thailand I was told.
This edition claims to be the true 6th council edition.  I was told that
the Burmese sixth council edition as published in Burma and given in VRI
CSCD is almost identical with the Fifth Council edition done in the
1850s and engraved in the Mandalay slabs. After the Sixth council was
over and president Nu, who had organised the council, was ousted, the
`orthodox' and pro-Fifth Council group of Burmese monks participating in
the council took over as they has more political power and had their
fifth council version of the sixth council edition printed rather than
the official version approved in the council...  The Thais found out
about this and decided to publish the real 6th council edition, but it
has developed into a royal prestige project intending to imitate King
Chullalonkorns travels around the world distributing Tipititakas.

  The Budsir digital edition of the Royal Thai Tipitaka and commentaries
made and sold by Mahidol University, Bankok is somewhat similarThai
prestige project. It used to be sold for thousands of dollars but is now
sold at a ``mere'' US$ 300 to individuals. I recently had the chance to
use it. The software it was made in is now somewhat outdated and the
search program does not work in roman script.

This being said, at least the Thais are capable of producing a good
quality digital edition. The Sinhalese digital Buddha Jayanthi is full
of errors.

Yours,
               Bh. Nyanatusita