Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Buddhist_council
Fourth Buddhist Council is the name of two separate Buddhist council meetings. The first one was held in the 1st century BC, in Sri Lanka. In this fourth Buddhist council the Theravadin Pali Canon was for the first time committed to writing, on palm leaves. The second one was held by the Sarvastivada school, in Kashmir around the 1st century AD.
Early Buddhism
Scriptures
Contents
1 Fourth Buddhist Council in Sri Lanka 2 Fourth Buddhist Council in Kashmir 3 References 4 See also
Councils
1st Council 2nd Council 3rd Council 4th Council
Schools
The Fourth Buddhist Council was held in Tambapanni (Sri Lanka) under the patronage of King Vattagamani (r. 103-77 BCE). The main reason for its convening was the realization that it was now not possible for the majority of monks to retain the entire Tipitaka in their memories as had been the view talk edit (//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Template:Early_Buddhism&action=edit) case formerly for the Venerable Mahinda and those who followed him soon after. Therefore, as the art of writing had, by this time developed substantially it was thought expedient and necessary to have the entire body of the Buddha's teaching written down. King Vattagamani supported the monk's idea and a council was held specifically to commit the entire Tipitaka to writing, so that the genuine Dhamma might be lastingly preserved. To this purpose, the Venerable Maharakkhita and five hundred monks recited the words of the Buddha and then wrote them down on palm leaves. This remarkable project took place in a cave called, the Aloka lena, situated in the cleft of an ancient landslip near what is now Matale. Thus the aim of the Council was achieved and the preservation in writing of the authentic Dhamma was ensured. In the 18th century, King Vijayarajasiha had images of the Buddha created in this cave. After the Council, palm leaves books appeared, and were taken to other countries, such as Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. The Tipitaka and its commentaries were originally brought to Sri Lanka by the missionary monk Mahinda of the Third Buddhist Council.
1 of 2
1/29/2013 11:49 AM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Buddhist_council
converting an earlier Prakrit version into Sanskrit. Although this change was probably effected without significant loss of integrity to the canon, this event was of particular significance since Sanskrit was the official holy language of Brahmanism in India, and was also being used by other thinkers (regardless of their specific religious or philosophical allegiance), thus enabling a far wider audience to gain access to Buddhist ideas and practices. For this reason, all major (Sarvastivad and Mahayana) Buddhist scholars in India thereafter wrote their commentaries and treatises in Sanskrit.
Navigation menu
This page was last modified on 25 June 2012 at 02:15. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for details. Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
2 of 2
1/29/2013 11:49 AM