Is one of the most important days in Buddhism Because of three important incidents in the life of The Buddha;
The Day of Visak, formally entitled as the Historical and Timeless Significance, is a Tipiṭaka Multimedia, produced by the Dhamma Society for the inauguration of the International Tipiṭaka Hall Vasaka Celebration in 2003.
Pāḷi Recitation and translations in Thai and English by Master Siri Petchai and Prof Visudh Busyakul. Included are also passages from Pāḷi Tipiṭaka and translations in Sinhalese, German, French, and English. Dhamma Society wishes to thank all individual participants in this production.
This documentary was produced and edited by volunteers of the World Tipiṭaka Project
On November 24th 2009, Ajahn Pasanno, Abbot of Abhayagīrī, was invited to attend a celebration ceremony at the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, in Bangkok. The sponsoring organization, The World Tipiṭaka Project in Roman Script, had also invited members of the Sangha from Burma – including monks who could recite either two or all three of the divisions of the Pāḷi Canon – as well as senior monks from the Theravādan regions of Yunnan, in mainland China.
The principal aim of this private organisation is to provide the world with a reliable edition of the Pāḷi Canon in Roman script. To that end they have spent ten years poring over extant editions. These include the text agreed upon by the Sixth Great International Council, held in Burma over the year 2500 of the Buddhist era (1956-57), the edition produced by the Pāḷi Text Society, as well as that of S.N. Goenka’s students, and several others. Through meticulous checking and cross-checking they managed to find and correct literally hundreds of thousands of typographical and other errors. Their efforts have born fruit in what can certainly be reckoned as the most trustworthy representation of the Word of the Buddha, in the Roman alphabet.
The ceremony in Bangkok was an occasion of commitment; the group has undertaken to offer these sets of 40 volumes to various universities and monasteries worldwide, many of them going to the very same institutions that were given similar sets in 1897, but in Siam (Thai) script, by King Chulalonkhorn Chulachomklao of Siam. Last year’s ceremony was presided over by HRH Princess Chulabhorn – the youngest daughter of the current King and Queen of Thailand – and was also an occasion to dedicate the blessings of the offering to the His Holiness, Somdet Phra Ñāṇasaṃvara,the Supreme Patriarch of Thailand, on his 96th birthday.
On March the 13th 2010, Abhayagīrī Monastery was honoured to receive a delegation of twenty people from The World Tipiṭaka Project, headed by the Project’s founder and primary organizer, Maj. Bunnag, and M.L. Anong Ninubon, who also celebrated her 93rdbirthday that very day. The group had come to make a presentation of sets of the Tipiṭaka to The University of Washington, Seattle, as well as to Abhayagīrī. In addition they came to visit The University of California, Berkeley, particularly to view the edition of the Chulachomklao of Siam Pāḷi Tipiṭaka that had been given to that university in 1897.
As this was an auspicious and unique event many of the long-standing friends and supporters of Abhayagīrī gathered for the occasion, even though it was in the usually quiet time of the winter retreat. Many of our regular visitors also stowed their customary wardrobe of jeans and t-shirts for the day with everyone making impressive efforts to deck themselves in suitably festive attire. As befitted the occasion, the hall was also festooned with an abundance of flowers; delicate bouquets and effulgent sprays garlanded the newly-offered volumes.
The visitors began the event by showing a presentation about their project and, when all of the procedures of the presentation were complete, and reflections on the occasion had been offered, the event was closed by reciting the Buddha's first teaching – Dhammacakkappavattanasutta : The Discourse on Setting in Motion the Wheel of Dhamma – and a communal Sharing of Blessings.
It is in the spirit of sharing blessings that this energetic and generous group have put forth the Herculean effort required to create this World Edition of the Pāḷi Canon. They see that these teachings are part of the world’s heritage of knowledge and have undertaken this endeavour in order to enable all those who wish to partake of that knowledge to be able to access it freely.
May the books that they have offered to this one small monastery serve to illuminate the hearts and minds of all who reside here, and thus help to illuminate the lives of all those with whom we are connected.
Tipiṭaka Acceptance Speech by John Soh, Buddha Dhamma Mandela, Singapore
Your Excellency Dr. Tana Duangrat, the Ambassador of Thailand to MalaysiaAmbassador Suchitra, Special Envoy of the World Tipiṭaka Project from Thailand Honorable Ladies M.L. Anong and Vichandra Patrons of the World Tipiṭaka, Ladies and Gentlemen :
The Pāḷi Tipiṭaka is for we Buddhists the font of our religion. It is where we get our ethics, our world view and our philosophy from. Each Buddhist Culture reads the Tipiṭaka in their own language or at least in their own script. But with Buddhism now spreading to the West there is a need for an accurate and reliable edition of the Tipiṭaka in Roman script.
Of course the Tipiṭaka has been published in Roman script before but all these editions have various errors or drawbacks. For example, I was looking at the first volume of Fausboll's edition of the Jataka published in 1877 by the Pali Text Society and noticed that it has four pages of corrections and additions and that when this volume was reprinted in 2000 these corrections and additions had still not been included in the text.
This is not to disparage the dedication and hard work of earlier scholars but merely to point out that there is still room for improvements. And this edition in Roman script definitely is an improvement. Indeed it is a work of the highest order and a truly magnificent monument to Her Royal Highness Princess Galyani Vadhana in whose memory this gift is made to our and other societies and institutions, and to Mrs. Maniratana Bunnag, the founder of the World Tipiṭaka Project. In preparing this new edition advanced computer-controlling procedures have been used in several dimensions to ensure complete accuracy such as, double-cross checking, from the revision stage through to the artwork, layout and printing.
Most importantly, in the World Tipiṭaka Edition, the Pāḷi text with special diacritical marks has been printed by using an open-standard typeface which is user-friendly and easy to copy into any electronic format for references. I noticed also that the layout, design, binding and paper used in each volume are all of the highest quality. This new edition of the Tipiṭaka is not just a major achievement from the point of view of Buddhist scholarship,it is also aesthetically pleasing, which is only appropriate for an edition of the sacred scriptures.
In our society it will be treasured and used. On behalf of the Buddha Dhamma Mandala Society of Singapore we would like to thank Col. Suradhaj Bunnag, and all the Patrons for all the help you have given us and other recipients.
