A 21st CENTURY TRIPITAKA: THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE DIGITAL  SANSKRIT BUDDHIST CANON

Min Bahadur Shakya, Director Nagarjuna Institute of Exact Methods

This paper outlines the formation of the Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon, a project to digitize and freely distribute the Sanskrit texts of Buddhism. The scriptures which make up this Tripitaka comprise over a hundred thousand printed pages.

Electronic access to Sanskrit Buddhist texts has profound possibilities for enhancing the scope and depth of research.  To turn this dream into reality, in 2003, Prof. Lewis R. Lancaster, former President of University of the West and coordinator of the project, initiated cooperation with Nagarjuna Institute in Nepal to digitize the published texts which make up the Sanskrit Buddhist Canon. The Most Venerable Master Hsing Yun, Founder of University of the West, Los Angeles, kindly agreed to sponsor this meritorious project.

Master Hsing Yun's vision for this project was to make the original Sanskrit Buddhist texts available online. In this way, the Sanskrit Tripitaka is being made easily accessible to all. We are accelerating our work by broadening our support and applying the latest computer technology. Currently we have placed the full texts of 62 Sutras, 87 Shastras, and 108 Stotras (hymns) online. Now, for the first time in history, the basic texts of Indian Buddhism are accessible freely downloadable via the internet at http://www.uwest.edu/sanskritcanon

To have all the Sanskrit Buddhist texts online will be a major milestone in Buddhist scholarship, and this will also be immensely useful to teachers and practitioners within Buddhism. This paper will discuss the progress made to date and the steps that will be required to meet this great, yet still distant goal.