152 BULLETIN 148, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



2. BUDDHIST SCRIPTURES (DHARMA) 



The sacred books supposed to embody the word of Buddha are 

 considered by Buddhists as forming the second member of the 

 Triratna — the three precious ones — to whom the pious Buddhist 

 daily takes his refuge. The books themselves receive divine honors. 

 They are held materially sacred, are placed in high places and 

 worshipped. 



The two main divisions of Buddhism, the Hynayana and Mahayana, 

 or the southern and northern schools, respectively (compare the 

 introduction, p. 118), have different canons of scriptures. The 

 southern canon is written in the Pali language and contains on the 

 whole the older and purer exposition of Buddha's doctrines, though 

 it already shows a considerable development. The scriptures of the 

 Mahayana, or northern school, which are written parts in Sanskrit 

 and in a mixed dialect of Sanskrit and Middle Indian or the Gatta 

 dialect, parts in Chinese, Tibetan, Mongolian, and Japanese, are in 

 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 different 

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

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

 difi^erent works. 



The Buddhist scriptures go by the name of the Tripitaka (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 v/orkmen 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. 



211. 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. '^Vinaya-pitaTca," collection of rules and precepts especially in- 

 tended for the monks (vols. 1-8). 



2. '^ Suttanta-pitalca, or Sutras," containing discourses, proverbs, 

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



