322 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.59. 



their contents more or less influenced by Hinduism, and contain not 

 only what is found in the Pali scriptures but a great deal more. The 

 southern canon is about twice as large as the English Bible, and is 

 assumed to have been fixed in the third century B. C, and reduced 

 to writing in Pali in the first century B. C. The northern canon is 

 about a hundred times larger than the Pali canon. Thus, the 

 Chinese scriptures are seven hundred times the amount of the New 

 Testament, comprising 5,000 books, which represent 1,662 differen 

 works. The Tibetan canon, called Ka-gyur (Kan-jur) contains 100 

 or 108 volumes of about 1,000 pages each and representing 1,083 

 different works. 



The Buddhist scriptures go by the name of the Trijntaka (three 

 baskets) because when the scholars classified the sacred writings, 

 which were written on palm leaves, the books were put into baskets. 

 Another explanation expresses the idea of how the scriptures were 

 handed down from one generation to another. In the Orient it is a 

 common custom to have workmen stationed in a line who hand 

 from man to man a series of baskets filled with something to be 

 removed from one place to another. In the case of the scriptures 

 it expresses figuratively the long line of teachers who handed down 

 to generation after generation the teachings of the founder. 



173. Sacred writings of the southern Buddhists (Tripitaka). — 

 Printed edition in 39 volumes, in the Pali language (the sacred 

 language of the southern Buddhists) and in the Siamese alphabet. 

 The three "baskets" contain: 



1. The Vinaya-pitaka, the collection of rules and precepts espe- 

 cially intended for the monks (vols. 1-8). 



2. The Suttanta-pitaka, or Sutras, containing discourses, proverbs, 

 hymns, and legends for general instruction (vols. 9-28). 



3. The Abhidhamma-pitaka, devoted to the metaphysics of 

 Buddhism (vols. 29-39). 



Bangkok, Siam. (154,989.) 



Presented by His Majesty Somdetch Phra Paramindr Maha Chula- 

 lonkorn Phra Chula Chom Klao, King of Siam, in commemoration 

 of the twenty-fifth anniversary of his reign, March 20, 1895. 



174. Prajna Paramita (Tibetan, SMrab).— Tibetan manuscript, 

 written on 366 ornate cardboards, consisting of several layers of paper 

 pasted together and varnished over with a black pigment, in gold 

 letters, and held between two covers of lacquered and gilt wood. 

 The Prajna Paramita, or " transcendental wisdom." properly, "the 

 means of arriving at the other side of wisdom," consists of mythical 

 discourses attributed to Buddha and addressed mostly to super- 

 natural hearers on the Vulture's Peak at Rajagriba (the modern 

 district of Patna, Bengal). It is the most sacred book of the Mahay- 

 anist scriptures. It is ascribed to Nagarjuna, a converted Brahmin 



