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Vaṭṭaka Paritta Mahāsaṅgīti Tipiṭaka Buddhavasse 2500 |
Dhamma Technology
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The World Tipiṭaka Project, 1999-2005
I have been informed and have studied the World Tipiṭaka Project entitled “The Buddhist Era 2500 Great International Council” published by the Dhamma Society in Roman script in B.E. 2548 (2005) with great appreciation and pride. This Tipiṭaka, an international Pāḷi-language edition, is the complete version both textually and in content and has been endorsed by Pāḷi-language scholars and Tipiṭaka experts of international repute. Moreover, this Tipiṭaka publication is particularly significant because it is the result of an additional integration with technological science which has become “Dhamma Technology”. Consequently, this Pāḷi Tipiṭaka Publication has achieved a three-fold international standard of publication and propagation, namely:
The first standard is the Publication Standard of the World Pāḷi Tipiṭaka in Roman script, utilizing the electronic open-source quality programme of a universal typesetting system. In addition, it is printed in Roman script, which is a script recognized universally as the most international script and one which can be used to replicate the original Pāḷi sound.
The second standard is the Tipiṭaka Markup Standard, which is modern international standard for electronic document and can be universally utilized by Information Technology available internationally.
The third standard is the International Tipiṭaka Studies Standard, an approach strictly in the Buddhist Theravāda tradition, made possible with this Romanised edition, which offers the methodology of the Great International Council for editing and publishing both the Pāḷi Tipiṭaka and the International Tipiṭaka Studies Reference.
An additional contribution of equal importance, as successful as the Publication of the Romanised Edition, is the collection of the Tipiṭaka electronic archive which recorded the entire process of the Romanised Tipiṭaka Project between B.E. 2542-2548 (1999-2005), creating a digital video archive of over 500 hours or 6,500 gigabytes. It is a contribution in documentary archiving which has never been attempted before. This Tipiṭaka Electronic Archive will be an important Tipiṭaka Historiography as well as a modern Tipiṭaka Anthology, and one which will be crucial to sustain and propagate the Pāḷi Tipiṭaka and the approach for the International Tipiṭaka Studies in the future.
It is therefore a supreme blessing that we are gathered here in this historic palace to inaugurate the Tipiṭaka Pilgrimage Orientation before the royal donation of the World Tipiṭaka edition in Roman script — the contribution of the wisdom-based international from Thailand — to various institutions and countries worldwide.
Thank you.
Professor Panata Migasena, M.D.
Fellow and Chairman of Science Academy
Royal Institute of Thailand
Opening Speech at the Royal Tipiṭaka Pligrimage Orientation to Sri Lanka
Delivered at Devaves Palace, Bank of Thailand
Sunday, 27 February B.E. 2548 (2005)
