Pali Literature Transmitted in Central Siam: A catalogue based on the Sap Songkhro
by Peter Skilling and Santi Pakdeekham. Foreword by His Holiness Somdet Phra Nyanasamvara, Supreme Patriarch of Thailand.
Bangkok: Fragile Palm Leaves Foundation/Lumbini International Research Institute
November, 2002. c + 361 pp., 8 figs.
ISBN 974-13-2148-1
Pali literature has been transmitted in South-East Asia for well over a thousand years. Texts and Tipitakas have travelled back and forth across the Indian ocean and the South-East Asian land routes. The different countries and cultures of the region have each made their own contributions to the transmission, preservation, and composition of Pali literature, with the result that the Pali heritage of each culture is different. That of Siam is especially rich, but it is also little known and little studied.
Pali Literature Transmitted in Central Siam is an inventory of this literature, as well, of course, of the literature that is shared with other countries where the Theravadin lineage predominates--the classical Tipitaka with its commentaries, sub-commentaries, and manuals. The book gives the titles of 529 texts, the majority inscribed on palm-leaf, divided into the four traditional categories of Vinaya, Sutta, Abhidhamma, and Language. It is based on the Sap Songkhro, which was published in 1925 by Maha Kim Hongladarom, an influential Pali scholar of the first half of the 20th century.
Pali Literature is bilingual, in English and Thai, and gives Pali titles in Thai and roman scripts. Each title is accompanied by a brief description and bibliographical references, as available. The introduction describes the sources used for the compilation of the book, and gives a brief biography of Maha Kim Hongladarom. The book is accompanied by indexes of titles, persons, place-names, and selected genres.
Many of the texts are unknown to modern scholarship, and have never been studied, published, or translated. It is hoped that Pali Literature Transmitted in Central Siam will inspire interest in this literature, and function as a handbook for its study and for the cataloguing of manuscript collections in Siam and abroad.
Pali Literature is Volume 1 of a new series, Materials for the Study of the Tripitaka, intended to offer basic resource and reference material for the study of Buddhist literature.
"This book provides a unique opportunity to see Pali Buddhist literature in process: what was actually being copied and read in one place at one time. Aside from its direct use as a handbook for the study of Pali literature in Central Thailand, the book is an exemplar for this kind of study in other parts of the Buddhist world." Steven Collins (University of Chicago)
Beyond Worldly Conditions
Edited by Peter Skilling
Bangkok: Fragile Palm Leaves
August 1999. ix + 155 pp.
ISBN 974-87127-5-3
This is a collection of texts, ancient and modern, on the eight Ôworldly conditionsÕ or lokadhamma, a fundamental teaching of the Buddha. Pali texts are given in Thai and roman scripts and translated into Thai and English.
Contents of the English section:
I. Venerable Dhammapitaka (P.A. Payutto) on the Eight Worldly Conditions, translated from the Thai by Bruce Evans.
II. Lokadhamma-sutta: The Discourse on Worldly Conditions, Royal Chanting Book Version. Pali text with English translation by Peter Skilling.
III. Excerpt from Sirimangalacariya’s Illuminator of the Meaning of the [Sutta on] the Auspicious. Pali text with English translation by Peter Skilling.
IV. Readings from Suttas, Commentaries, and Subcommentaries. Pali texts with English translation by Peter Skilling.
V. Readings from Tibetan and Chinese, translated by Peter Skilling and Friedrich Grohmann.
VI. The Lokadhamma-suttas and their commentaries. Pali texts edited by Peter Skilling.
"Rigorous and lucid as a work of scholarship, this book presents a Buddhism of beautiful and inspiring simplicity." Steven Collins (University of Chicago)