This site contains a new, open source, independent, rational English translation of selections from the Pāḷi Tipiṭaka, based on the The World Tipiṭaka Edition - “The Buddhist Era 2500 Great International Council Pāḷi Tipiṭaka, Roman Script 2005” (Mahāsaṅgīti Tipiṭaka Buddhavasse 2500)
[!INFO] Tidipa (or using diacritics:
tidīpa) is a Pali word meaning "three lamps". It can also be used to mean "three islands". tidipa is intended to be a reference to thetipiṭaka- the "three baskets" of the Buddhist Canon. Image generated by Imagen 4.
Tipiṭaka in Pāḷi (or in Sanskrit tripiṭaka) means "three baskets" and refers to a collection of the Buddha's teachings organised into three main textual divisions. The Pāḷi Tipiṭaka is one of several versions of the Buddhist canon, and the only one where all three "baskets" have been preserved.
What is meant by a new, open source, independent, rational English translation?
- It is new because it is a fresh (2025) translation based on The World Tipiṭaka Edition which I have resurrected as a website in 2025.
- It is open source as the license for the translations have no copyright, ie. they are dedicated to the public domain via CC0. CC0 enables reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, with no conditions. Please note that only the translations are CC0, the included articles and books from other sources are copyright by their respective authors, and the source code of the website itself is under the MIT license.
- It is independent of academic institutions, organisations or religious affiliations.
- It is rational because it is provides a literal interpretation of the texts, based on the Digital Pali Dictionary, and it is intended to be as faithful as possible, retaining Buddhist technical terms in Pāḷi (rather than opting for the nearest equivalent English words).
It is also rational because it makes the presumption that the Buddha's teachings:
- can be understood purely through reason and logic,
- are as relevant today as they were over 2,600 years ago,
- do not contradict modern science,
- do not require faith or beliefs that cannot be personally substantiated,
- and in particular do not rely on supernatural or spiritual explanations.
Initially, this website features a translation of Sections 1-14 of the Mahākhandhaka (The Great Collection) in 3V Mahāvaggapāḷi (The Great Group of Texts) from the Vinaya basket - I will refer to this collection as the "Khandhaka". These sections that have been translated narrates the Buddha's life from awakening to the ordination of his two main disciples, Sāriputta and Moggallāna.
Features of the translation:
- The original Pāli text (from The World Tipiṭaka Edition) is provided alongside the translated text.
- Diagrams summarising each section of the text are provided. These are drawn as pseudo UML activity and sequence diagrams.
- A commentary is provided to explain significant points of the text from a rational, phenomenological perspective.
- Where possible, parallels to the text are provided, as well as other opinions of the text by academic scholars. These opinions are included in this website where permissible by copyright (ie. the text is downloadable or open access)
This website will be progressively augmented over time to include additional translations from a selection of texts from the Tipiṭaka.
2025-06-30: Initial version
This website is currently hosted on Github Pages. It is a Github Repository called tidipa.github.io.
The website pages are authored using a combination of Obsidian and Visual Studio Code. A static site generator called Quartz is used to convert the Markdown files into a static web site.
