Re: Scans of the original Burmese Chattha Sangayana Tipitaka

  Dear Suzanne,

The edition you quote appears entirely based on other printed editions,
unless the Poranatipitakam is one of the Thai Royal Tipitaka manuscripts
sets. It is not a critical edition based on many original manuscripts.
There are thousands of Pali manuscripts in libraries in Burma, Thailand
and Sri Lanka but they have not been consulted for this edition.
The PTS editions of the Sutta Pitaka, etc, are often based on only the
few manuscripts, usually from Burma and Sri Lanka that the editors
managed to get a hold of. Only a few manuscripts were available to
European scholars at the time, as you can read in the introductions to
the editions. Nowadays, many manuscripts are available but the PTS and
other institutions have nevertheless not produced new editions because
scholars nowadays are not interested in this kind of work or can't get
funding for it. I was told that Christian scholars have produced
editions based on many manuscripts. Nothing of this sort has been done
yet in the field of Pali. Also there is still a lot of research to be
done on the contents of Pali manuscript collections in Theravada
countries and their origins.
Please see my article:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/34598208/Pali-Manuscripts-of-Sri-Lanka

Best wishes,
                        Bh Nt

> 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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>



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