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In the 112th year of the Rattanakosin Era (B.E. 2436/A.D.1893) the Kingdom of Siam was buffeted by events that seriously threatened the nation’s so...
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In the 112th year of the Rattanakosin Era (B.E. 2436/A.D.1893) the Kingdom of Siam was buffeted by events that seriously threatened the nation’s sovereignty. It is, therefore, all the more amazing that in the same year, the ruling sovereign monarch, King Chulalongkorn Chulachomklao of Siam, managed to publish a 39-volume edition of the Pāḷi Tipiṭaka, then written in ‘Siam script’, the first time that the sacred text of the Theravāda Buddhist tradition had been printed in this script. Intended to mark the 25th anniversary of the king’s accession to the throne, some 500 sets were given as a dāna to monasteries throughout the country. Soon after, an additional 260 sets were presented as a royal gift to various institutions around the world. Today, these books are considered to be the earliest printed versions of the Tipiṭaka, and one of the most important milestones in the dissemination of the sacred scriptures in the history of the Theravāda Buddhist tradition.
As the world’s first printed edition of the Theravāda Buddhist scriptures, the Pāḷi Tipiṭaka in Siam script is a testament to the genius of the Thai forefathers. It required a wealth of cultural and technical knowledge acquired over generations and six years of hard work to complete the final phrase of the publication over a century ago. The publication marked a significant step forward in the early printing technology for reproducing the Tipiṭaka and the means of disseminating the Buddha’s words. In fact, the Pāḷi Tipiṭaka in Siam script broke with centuries of tradition in five important ways:
1. With this publication in the B.E. 2436 (1893), the Pāḷi Tipiṭaka was printed not on traditional palm leaves but on industrial paper, the first time paper was used in the production of a book-form set of the Tipiṭaka since the oral teachings were first recorded in written form in the 4th century B.E, breaking a world historiographic tradition dating back over 2,000 years.
2. The Pāḷi text was transcribed not in ancient Khmer script but in contemporary Siam script during the reign of King Chulachomklao of Siam, breaking with a regional scriptural tradition dating back no less than 1,000 years.
3. For the first time, the Pāḷi text was not inscribed by hand but printed by machine, using the most advanced printing technology of the time.
4. Also for the first time, the Tipiṭaka was treated as data-centric document printing, the most advanced IT concept of the time, with systematic page numbering and an innovative printing of the table of contents. It was no longer simply an artifact hand-printed on a series of palm fronds.
5. In addition to the religious tradition of keeping the Tipiṭaka in “scripture halls” in monasteries around the country, copies of the 39-volume Pāḷi Tipiṭaka were distributed to and housed at important international learning institutions all around the world, creating a new additional network of Tipiṭaka repositories worldwide.
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