[This document can be acquired from a sub-directory coombspapers via anonymous FTP and/or COOMBSQUEST gopher on the node COOMBS.ANU.EDU.AU] The document's ftp filename and the full directory path are given in the coombspapers top level INDEX file] [This version: 15 July 1992] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 23 Jul 90 18:42:43 EDT Subject: 4.0309 Machine-Readable Buddhist Texts (1/126) Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 0309. Monday, 23 Jul 1990. Date: Sun, 22 Jul 90 11:22 CDT From: Jamie Hubbard Subject: Machine-Readable Buddhist Texts CONNECTIONS by Jamie Hubbard (jhubbard@smith.bitnet) (from the AAR Buddhism Section Newletter, 6/90) The second meeting of the ad hoc group of scholars interested in the use of computers in Buddhist Studies (known as WCCABS, the Working Committee on Computer Applications in Buddhist Studies, formed under the American Institute of Buddhist Studies at Columbia University in 1988) met at the Hsi Lai Temple last November. We updated each other on the various projects underway in our field, with special attention to the Buddhist Canon input projects underway in several parts of the world. I briefly reported on those projects at the AAR/Buddhism Section Business Meeting, and will simply repeat here that information, adding several new developments. TIBETAN The Asian Classics Input Project One of the more exciting moments this year was the recent receipt of a number of disks from the Asian Classics Input Project containing "the ten most often requested titles from the Kangyur and Tengyur collections" including the _Abhisamayalamkara_, _Madhyamakavatara_, Abhidharmakosa_, Pramanavarttika_, _Vinayasutra_, _Mulaprajna_, _Uttaratantra_, Catalog to the Kangyur (Derge edition), Catalog to the Tengyur (Derge edition), Catalog to the Kangyur (Lhasa edition), and the United States Library of Congress Tibetan-language Holdings. Under the Project Director, Michael Roach, these texts were input at Sera Mey Tibetan Monastic University and are distributed in standard ASCII format. The _enlightened policy of distribution (_so long as funding allows the data created should be offered to the international community without charge, for the betterment of mankind) should serve as a light to all of us as we enter the age of information processing in the field of Buddhist Studies. For more information contact The Asian Classics Input Project, Washington Area Office, 11911 Marmary Road, Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA, 20878-1839, phone (301)948-5569. PALI The Mahidol Edition of the Pali Canon Many of you know that the entire Thai version of the Pali canon was input under the supervision of Dr. Supachai Tangwongsan at Mahidol University, and is available today with software for either Thai or Roman character display, search, and printing of any portion of the canon. This database comprises some 25 million characters, and together with indices occupies the better part of an 80 megabyte drive. Unfortunately, the high cost and unwieldy distribution of the database prevented it from becoming widely available. Fortunately, Lew Lancaster, just back from a visit to Mahidol University, reports that they are interested in making the data available on a CD-ROM, a project that should be relatively easy to accomplish. This summer ought to see the beginning of the pre-mastering stage for this important contribution. The Pali Text Society Edition Two years ago the American Institute of Buddhist Studies secured permission from the Pali Text Society to input and publish electronic versions of their editions of the Pali texts (including commentaries and translations), easily the standard editions in use today. A proposal for funding this project is still pending with the NEH, but in the meantime input has begun at the Dhammakaya Foundation in Bangkok, and several disks have already been received. Lew Lancaster checked their work and reports a high accuracy rate, attained through a double-input of the text followed by semi-automatic and manual verification. It is estimated that the sutta portion will be completed by July, and so work on the pre- mastering of this data set should also be well underway by the time of our conference in November. CHINESE The input of the Chinese canon is perhaps the most daunting of all canon input projects. Several initiatives are underway, including the Fo Kuang Shan sponsored input project to input the Ch'i sha edition that I reported on at our Anaheim meeting. Lew (he was a busy traveler this spring) also made contact with the Korean Lay Buddhist Association, which has pledged their support for the input of the Koryo canon. I have also heard that Professor Ejima, at Tokyo University, has made plans to input the Taisho canon, though I have not heard more on that subject. The Buddhist Text Archive With all of the financial, technical, scholarly, and other difficulties of these large text archive projects it is sometimes easy to lose sight of what is rapidly developing into the single largest database of machine- readable texts in our field all of the research (commentaries), editions, and translations input by individual scholars throughout the world, either first entered into a computer of one sort or another or later printed from a computerized typesetter. The number of English translations and studies produced in the last decade alone would be a substantial database to have available for instant access, not to mention the Japanese, French, German, and other materials. Although the preservation and use of these materials involves significant problems, the fact remains that machine-readable texts and studies are being created every day in great numbers, and something needs to be done to record this information and begin the process of making it available. The Buddhist Text Archive, sponsored by the American Institute for Buddhist Studies, originally announced in this Newsletter (Issue #10) and endorsed by WCCABS at their last meeting, hopes to provide this kind of information-sharing. The Buddhist Text Archive, like other such archives (Oxford, Rutgers-Princeton, the Sanskrit Text Archive, etc.), seeks to collect and disseminate information regarding machine-readable texts, in our case, of interest to the field of Buddhist Studies. Initially the bare-bones information about the text (title, creator, original edition, availability, contents, format, etc.) would be cataloged. It is important to note that the simple existence of a machine-readable version of a text does not mean it is available; hence, your manuscript (your encoded text file) that was just published commercially could still be listed in the archive, even though no distribution was foreseen. The actual collection and distribution of these texts is another step, albeit a distant prospect at this stage. It is intended that this information will be readily accessible via IndraNet, though at this writing IndraNet is still in a state of transition (Bruce Burrill, who donated the original equipment and a great deal of time as the original sysop, turned the system over to the American Institute of Buddhist Studies last autumn). I will keep you posted when IndraNet comes back on-line; in the meanwhile, just think about a few CD- ROMs, with all of the Chinese, Tibetan, Pali, and Sanskrit texts at your fingertips, as well as full text versions of all of the modern research published within the last few decades . . . It is hard not to become slightly giddy at the prospect, but it does look as though we are finally getting closer to the time when such is not just the stuff of dreams (or envy of our colleagues in Classics or Western religious studies) but everyday reality. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- end of file