University of Melbourne in Australia
where the first 40-volume set of the World Tipiṭaka in Roman Script will be presented to in 2009

World Tipiṭaka Orientation for the Thai-Australian Community in Melbourne
Entitled : The World Tipiṭaka – A Royal Gift for the University of Melbourne in 2009

Organised by
The Dhamma Society Thailand & Melbourne University Thai Students Association

 Sunday 18, 2009 at 1400-1600

The Dhamma Society Thailand and the World Tipiṭaka Project are proud to inform the Thai-Australian Community in Melbourne that in 1893 or the Buddhist Era 2436, King Chulalongkorn Chulachomklao of Siam (Thailand) successfully printed the world's first set of the Pāḷi Tipiṭaka, then in Siam script in 39 volumes. The King presented the Siam-script Tipiṭaka as a gift of Dhamma to monasteries all over the Kingdom and to 260 international institutions all over the world, no less than 30 countries today, including the University of Melbourne in Australia. This historic edition is named “Chulachomklao of Siam Pāḷi Tipiṭaka 1893”. It has been kept in the University of Melbourne Library until this day.

To follow the King's magnanimous footstep, Thai students who used to study in Melbourne have organised a 2009 World Tipiṭaka Presentation to the University of Melbourne. This forthcoming 40-volume set is known as “The World Tipiṭaka Edition”. It is published in Roman script and is considered as the world's first complete set in the Roman script from the Great International Council in 1957.

This special edition for the University of Melbourne Library will be presented as a royal gift from the late Princess Galyani Vadhana of Thailand, Patron of the World Tipiṭaka, to the Honorable Alex Chernobyl, Chancellor of Melbourne University on October 21, 2009, the first presentation in the Australian Continent. It is hoped that the World Tipiṭaka Presentation will strengthen the long-standing friendship in Wisdombase between Thailand and Australia. This gift to the University of Melbourne is also to honour the Sovereign Monarch of Thailand who over 40 years ago visited the University of Melbourne to receive an Honorary Doctorate during His Majesty the King's State Visit to Australia.

On Sunday 18, 2009, the Dhamma Society Thailand and Melbourne University Thai Students Association will organize an informal Tipiṭaka Orientation with multi-media presentation. This includes the demonstration of the latest e-Tipiṭaka and the Tipiṭaka WebService 2009 which will be unveiled for the first time for the Melbourne University Library.

Interested students and friends in Dhamma are all welcome.

Orientation Topics include :
1. The Tipiṭaka and the Great Buddhist Councils
2. Pāḷi or Dhamma language recorded in the Tipiṭaka
3. Various national scripts which have been used to inscrib in the Pāḷi Tipiṭaka from the past to the present.
4. From the Siam-script Tipiṭaka of Chulachomklao Edition to the Roman-script of the World Tipiṭaka Edition.
5. Tipiṭaka Technology
6. Collaboration in the Dhamma gift of the Tipiṭaka
7. Tipiṭaka Recitation
8. What is the benefit of Tipiṭaka Recitation for individual, society and the world.

The World Tipiṭaka Presentation to the University of Melbourne

The University of Melbourne is to be honoured as the first Australian institution to be presented with the updated, Romanised-script edition of the Buddhist scriptural canon, or the World Tipiṭaka in Roman Script, tomorrow, Wednesday 21 October 2009.

The colourful and formal procession to present the 40 volumes of sacred writings - which include some of the sayings of Shakyamuni, founder of Buddhism - will take place in the Gryphon Gallery, 1888 Building, at 2.15pm.

University Librarian Mr. Philip Kent says the Tipiṭaka is the earliest surviving collection of scriptures in the Theravāda Buddhist tradition, committed to writing from an oral tradition during the early years of Buddhism (first century BCE) in the Pāḷi language in what is modern day Sri Lanka. The scriptures were first printed in the nineteenth century.

"The printed Pāḷi Tipiṭaka were originally presented to the University in 1893 by His Majesty King Chulalongkorn Chulachomklao of Siam (now Thailand) and those original 39 volumes in Siam script are preserved at the University of Melbourne in excellent condition," he says.