Generous gift of Dhamma presented by Thai princess

Princess Bajrakitiyabha of Thailand (left) carries a copy of the ‘Tipitaka’ in Roman script at Wizaya Mingala Dhamma Thabin Hall on December 18.
Pic: Pe Myint Oo

IN 1999 the Dhamma Society of Thailand, founded by Maniratana Bunnag, started work on revising the phonetic Roman version of the Pali-language Tipitaka, the three books of the Buddhist cannon. The project was completed in 2005.

Last month, members of the Dhamma Society led by Princess Bajrakitiyabha of Thailand brought a copy of the 40-volume, Roman-script Tipitaka to Myanmar.

The set was presented to Dr Bhaddanta Kumarabhivamsa, chairman of the State Samgha Mah Nyaka Committee, at a ceremony held at Wizaya Mingala Dhamma Thabin Hall on Kaba Aye Hill in Yangon on December 18.

Dr Aung Maw, chancellor of the Dhamma Society of Myanmar, said the Roman-script Tipitaka would “play an important part in spreading Buddhism globally”.

“People from the West find it difficult to learn the Tipitaka [in Pali], which was written in Myanmar, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India where the Buddha gained enlightenment,” he said.

“They can’t read the Tipitaka. They can only study Chronicle of Buddha in English, which is not a satisfying means of learning about the Buddha’s teachings,” said Dr Aung Maw, who has contributed to the development of a Tipitaka database and digital Tipitaka edition.

The Pali Tipitaka consists of three parts: Suttantapitaka (book on the discourses), Abhidhammapitaka (book on the ultimate realities) and Vinayapitaka (book on the disciplines).

The words of the Buddha were first compiled in the Tipitaka at the First Great International Tipitaka Council in Rajagaha, India, around 543 BCE. Subsequently, councils were held in Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos to verify and propagate the Buddha’s teachings.

King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit of Thailand attended the Sixth Great International Tipitaka Council held at Mahapasana Cave at Kaba Aye Pagoda in Yangon in 1957.

“The translation of the Tipitaka into the Roman phonetic alphabet was based on the revised version of the Pali manuscript from the Sixth Great International Tipitaka Council in Yangon, where respected monks from all over the world gathered and recited the Tipitaka to verify the text,” Dr Aung Maw said.

He added that Dr Bhaddanta Kumarabhivamsa has asked Thailand for another four sets of the Roman Tipitaka for Buddhist universities in Myanmar, where scholars will be able to study the text.

Colonel Suradhaj Bunnag, the chancellor of Dhamma Society of Thailand and son of Maniratana Bunnag, told The Myanmar Times by email that preparing the 40-volume set was a “mammoth task”.

“In the past, collating and editing the Tipitaka was work done only by emperors and kings. With all humility and modesty, we in the Dhamma Society never dreamt of performing the whole task,” he said.

“At first we only thought of re-publishing an existing version but after checking the Roman-script manuscripts of the well-known Vippassana Research Institute [VRI] Edition, we found many printing errors,” he said.

After informing the president of the VRI about the errors, the Dhamma Society started proofreading the Roman version, a process that was repeated three times by scholars and took six years to complete.

Printed copies of the revised Roman version were released in 2005, and since then more than 40 institutions in 20 countries have received printed copies as a royal gift from Thailand.

The Dhamma Society spent another six years digitising the updated Roman version, a project that was completed last year.

“We realised this was a special deed that we were privileged to be involved in. We never thought the Tipitaka was our own, but we feel that it belongs to all humanity. We were simply contributing what little we could,” Suradhaj Bunnag said.