Re: Scans of the original Burmese Chattha Sangayana Tipitaka

Dear Venerable Nyanatusita,

> Personally, I think that what will be really valuable is to make a new
> critical edition based on many manuscripts from different countries,
> regions and monastic lineages, including Burmese pre- Fifth Council
> manuscripts.

Yes, that sounds like a good project. What I found closest to this is the latest Pali version in Thai script from 2549 BE/ 2006 AD. It is an attempt in this direction. It is a critical edition quoting from eight different versions in the footnotes:

1. Thai script: 2530 BE/1987 AD dayyaraTThassa saMgItitepiTakaM
2. Thai script: 2525 BE/1982 AD syAmaraTThassa tepiTakaM (first version in 45 volumes, finished 1925-1930 AD; before that there was Siam's first version in Thai script in 39 volumes from 1988 AD)
3. Thai script: 2500 BE/1957 AD mahAcuLAtepiTakaM (from the monastic university MCU)
4. "porANatepiTakaM", might be an not very well defined term for older versions of the Tipitaka found in Thailand??? It's not mentioned/defined in the foreword, but it's listed in the list of abbreviations for the critical remarks in the footnotes. The older versions would be in Khmer script and Lanna script. But as I said, I'm not sure what they exactly mean by "porANatepiTakaM".

Non-Thai version:
5. Burmese script: chaTThasaMgItitepiTakaM, printed 2538 BE/1995 AD
6. Sinhalese script version
7. (Nalanda) Devanagari script version
8. The PTS's Roman script version


> The Dhammakaya in Thailand is also intending to make a new Tipitaka
> edition, and an English translation too, intending to include the
> readings of the Lan Na manuscripts found in Northern Thailand (which
> some scholars are not that impressed with).

That's very interesting! Could you tell me more about that? Do you know how far they have proceeded by now? Or do you know who I could contact for further information?
In my dissertation I compare and analyse several Thai (language) versions of the Tipitaka. The comparison is based on the Mahalisutta/Silakhandhavagga/Dighanikaya; I made this choice as I wanted to include the Thai "Nissaya Tipitaka" project which is in progress right now, and they started with Dighanikaya/Silakhandhavagga, and there have been two volumes so far.

It would be very interesting to include a Dhammakaya version in my comparative analysis!

By the way, I saw that in the 2549 BE version of the Thai Mahatherasamakhom the committee board of monks who were in charge of the Thai translation of the suttantapiTaka were exclusively from Wat Pak Nam, so they might well be Thammakai monks. (Can we draw conclusions to the relationship between the Thammakai sect and the Mahatherasamakhom...?)

But anyway, an exclusively Thammakai-made Tipitaka might still be quite different, and I am very curious to know more about it. I would be very happy if you could give me further information about the Dhammakaya project! (Sorry I've been mixing the Thai and the Pali spelling.)

Thank you for your attention, and I'm looking forward to any ideas and hints how to get to know more about the Dhammakaya Tipitaka project.

Respectfully

Susi

PS: To everybody: It's quite an odd feeling to post something without any reaction to it (I'm grateful for any), but I guess that's just the nature of mailing lists, and I will just observe my "odd feelings" with awareness :-).




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