TRIPITAKA

March 24, 2019

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena handed over a proposal seeking to declare the Theravada Tripitaka, the sacred scripture of Buddhists, as a UNESCO World Heritage. It was declared a National heritage of Sri Lanka by President in January this year.

About:

The Tripiṭaka is the traditional term for the Buddhist scriptures.
Buddha’s teachings were initially propagated through word of mouth for generations till the Tripitaka was finally written down in Sri Lanka about 100 years BC.
The teachings are contained in three volumes titled ‘Sutta, Vinaya and Abhidhamma’.
- The Vinaya Pitaka's primary subject matter is the monastic rules for monks and nuns.
- The Sutta Pitaka contains more than 10,000 suttas (teachings) attributed to the Buddha or his close companions.
- The Abhidhamma Piṭaka is a detailed scholastic analysis and summary of the Buddha's teachings in the Suttas.
They were first compiled and written on palm leaves with more than 1000 monks involved in the task in Aluvihare near Matale.
Much of the surviving Tripiṭaka literature is in Pali, with some in Sanskrit as well as other local Asian languages.