The Encyclopaedia of Buddhism

{{AFC comment|1=This is not much of an improvement over the previous submission. Most of the references are to the encyclopedia itself. Independent in-depth coverage from third parties is needed. Also, this draft has too much detail about the encyclopedia staff (see [[WP:IINFO|Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information), and needs to be reworked to give a better top-down view of what the encyclopedia is. Please ask for advice either at the Teahouse or at WT:WikiProject Buddhism or both. Robert McClenon (talk) 17:22, 15 May 2018 (UTC)}}

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Encyclopaedia of Buddhism

Vollumes I - VIII
Edited by	Office of the Encyclopaedia of Buddhism
Country	Sri Lanka
Language	English
Publisher	Government Press, Sri Lanka
Published	1961 - 2009
No. of books	Eight Volumes (31 fascicles)

Download a book of the serie The Encyclopaedia of Buddhism or buy them on amazon

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Compiling Encyclopaedia of Buddhism is one of milestones in the recent history of Buddhism in Sri Lanka (earlier Ceylon). It was initiated as one of several undertakings of Laṅkā Bauddha Maṇḍalaya (Buddhist Council of Ceylon) set up in connection with the celebration of Buddha Jayanti, 2500th anniversary of Buddha’s parinirvāṇa (passing away) (1955-1956). The encyclopaedia was planned to contain all the key terms pertaining to Buddhism in general that cover all schools and sects of Buddhism covering their teachings, literature, culture, history, arts, archaeology and related current issues.

Prof. G.P. Malalasekera, a renowned Pāli scholar and then professor of Pāli and Buddhist civilization, University of Ceylon (presently University of Peradeniya) was the founder editor-in-chief, who established the structure of the encyclopaedia taking into consideration the views and suggestions of the world-renowned Buddhist scholars. He continued his valuable service to the encyclopaedia until his death at 73 in 1973. In his service of 17 years he completed virtually all the ground work and published two volumes completely, with four fascicles for each volume, and three fascicles of the third volume.

After Prof. Malalasekera the compilation of the encyclopaedia was handed over to four editors-in-chief consecutively, O. H. De A. Wijesekera, Jotiya Dhirasekera, Bandhula Jayawardhana and W.G. Weeraratne. The eighth and last volume, which has only three fascicles, was published in 2009. Each volume comprises approximately 750 pages, which makes the whole work containing 5,878 pages of B4 size ending with the term Zong a-han.

From the beginning the encyclopaedia was printed at the Ceylon Government Press under patronage of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, and at present the project is run by the Ministry of Buddha Sasana.

At present, newly appointed editorial board, with Prof. Asanga Tilakaratne as editor-in-chief, has started reviewing the entire project for updating contents, filling any missing material, and compiling an index volume. Launching the whole work gradually to the internet is an important part of the mandate of the current editorial board.

Introduction

Introducing the Encyclopaedia of Buddhism in the preface of Volume of Specimen Articles published in 1957 Prof. Malalasekera states that:

Buddhism covers a vast expanse, both of time and space. The encyclopaedia aims at giving a comprehensive account of the origins of this world-religion and the development that have taken place during a period of twenty-five centuries. To deal with Buddhism is to deal with a whole civilisation, in fact, a whole series of civilisations, which have influenced the lives of myriads of human beings in many lands. Satisfactory treatment of the subject should, thus, include information about the doctrines of Buddhism and their growth, the history of their spread and expansion, accounts of the numerous Buddhist Schools and Sects, their origin and subsequent ramification, description of Buddhist rites and ceremonies as found in many lands, the history of the fine arts – paintings and sculpture, architecture, music, dance and drama – under the influence of Buddhism in various countries, details of Buddhist shrines and places of pilgrimage and of the vast literature connected with the Buddhism which developed in many languages, both ancient and modern, and biographies of persons who, in the course of Buddhist history, played important parts. Even so, the list of topics would not be exhausted.

At the outset, the style and structure of the encyclopaedia were hard to be determined since there was no previous model to be followed. Prof. Malalasekera elaborates this issue lucidly thus:

… It is made more difficult by the fact that we have no model to follow: that ours, in a sense, is pioneer work. The encyclopaedias already available dealing with various religions differs from ours either in their scope or in the method of treatment they have adopted. Thus, the Encyclopaedia Biblica deals only with information connected with the Bible, while the Catholic Encyclopaedia is a presentation of the of the Roman Catholic point of view not only on matters strictly connected with Christianity but on numerous other matters as well, Hastings’ Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics is, for our purpose, too wide in scope and extent, while the Encyclopaedia Islamica requires a knowledge of Arabic for it to be readily used. Mochizuki’s Bukkyo Daijiten is, unfortunately for us, published in Japanese.

The suggestion at the inception was to compile ten independent volumes on different titles such as the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha, the History and Archaeology of Buddhism, Fine Arts, Buddhist Literature, Sociological Elements, Proper Names and last two for general indexes, but this was given up after the consultation of experts, for it could consume excessive editorial labour delaying the publication of encyclopaedia unexpectedly and, in addition, it might have a risk of missing some important entries. Eventually, the encyclopaedia was designed to follow the method of English Alphabetical Order as presented in Hastings’ Encyclopaedia with two minor amendments as follows.

1. While transliterating Pāli and Sanskrit headwords, diacritical marks were applied without calculating their articulation variations in sorting. Therefore, for instance, the terms Abrahmacariyā, Abṛhat, Ābramhaṇa Abrupt Doctrine are in order.
2. For a given topic there are, sometimes, multiple articles written in different angles without overlapping the content and usually supplementary to each other in nature. For example the Headword Abhidhamma there are ten small articles written by five authors.

Transliteration is an indispensable part of any sort of Buddhist glossary. However, for the most part, there was no universally accepted standard of transliterating at the time of the encyclopaedia’s commencement. Transliteration applied in the encyclopaedia was, then, as thus: for Chinese, the Wade-Giles system; for Japanese, the Hepburn system; for Pāli, Sanskrit, Sinhalese and Tamil as standardised by Geiger; for Burmese, Korean, Tibetan and other oriental languages the orthographic transcription generally accepted by scholars, and lexicographers, and for Siamese as suggested by H. H. Prince Dhani Nivat. In certain cases, some canonical words such as Saṅgha for the Buddhist monastic order, Arahant for Saint, karma/kamma for action, have been retained as such in preference to a dubious English rendering with a connotation foreign to Buddhism. There are plenty of cross-references too especially focusing on the readers who are not familiar with such technical terms. An additional remark should be dropped here pointing that the current editorial board is of opinion to revise some of these stylistic features of the encyclopaedia in the light of more popular encyclopaedias now.

Finally, it should be noted that all the entries of the encyclopaedia do not share equal weight of information depending on the significance of the term. As mentioned above, all the possible words brought from every school and sect of Buddhism are discussed here but in varying degrees: for some keywords, like Ākāṅkṣitamukha, have a dictionary-like description of a few lines but for others, like Jātaka, have lengthy articles running more than10 pages. However, this characteristic and few others are being discussed to be revised in the forthcoming edition.

Short history

In 1955, Government of Ceylon inaugurated Laṅkā Bauddha Maṇḍalaya (Ceylon Buddhist Council) for the purpose of organising events connected to the celebration of 2500^th anniversary of Buddha Jayanti, 2500^th anniversary of the parinirvāṇa of the Buddha according to the Theravada tradition in South and South-East Asian countries. The Encyclopaedia of Buddhism was one of the projects initiated by the council.

The task of preparing the ground work for the project was handed over to a committee headed by Prof. G.P. Malalasekera. The committee members unanimously selected Prof. Malalasekera as the editor-in-chief of the proposed encyclopaedia. The work did not have precedents either in Sri Lanka or anywhere else in the Buddhist world. Prof. Malalasekera paid several visits to Europe, China and Japan to meet and discuss with renowned scholars in order secure their support for the proposed project. Recalling the early stages of the encyclopaedia and the international cooperation he received, Prof. Malalasekera wrote in 1957:

[f]or the better co-ordination of our work several Regional committees have been set up. The largest and most active of these is the Japanese Committee with its headquarters in Tōyō University in Tokyo. This Committee has as its Chairman the veteran Buddhist scholar Dr.Makoto Nagai, with Drs.Shoson Miyamoto and Susumu Yamaguchi as Vice-Chairmen. Professor Shinsho Hanayamais in charge of the Compilation Office, while the Rev. Riri Nakayama, working under his direction, is responsible for the Translation Section. Over a hundred scholars in various Universities in Japan have been enlisted to compile articles which will, in the first instance, be written in Japanese and later translated into English. The Japanese Committee agreed to depute a Japanese scholar for full-time work in our own office in Ceylon to act as liaison and also help in the revision of the translations. Their present representative is Rev. K. Hayashima, Assistant Professor of Philosophy in Tōyō University. In China, under the aegis of the People’s Republic, a very representative committee of scholars has been set up in Peiking, whose Chairman is Professor Dr. Chao Pu-Chu. The Chairman of the French Committee is Dr. Jean Filliozat. Smaller committee have been also set up in Burma and Thailand, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. Both Dr. Makoto Nagai and Dr.Filliozat have visited our office in Peradeniya and made useful suggestions for organising and expediting the work. It is hoped to have, from time to time, members of these committees and members of the Board of Honorary Editors working in our office, at least for short periods.

Highlighting the larger local and international support for the project two honorary boards were appointed, one with the senior members of the Mahā Saṅgha representing all three Buddhist traditions, Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana, and the other with senior scholars in Buddhism from all over the world.

The first Monastic Advisory Board comprised the following members of Mahā Saṅgha representing Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, Japan, China and Mongolia.

1. Ven. Agga-Mahā-Panḍita Polwatte Buddhadatta Nāyaka Thero – Ceylon (Sri Lanka)
2. Ven. Dr. Dehigaspe Paññāsāra Nāyaka Thero – Ceylon (Sri Lanka)
3. Ven. Induruwe Uttarānanda Nāyaka Thero – Ceylon (Sri Lanka)
4. Ven. Agga-Mahā-Panḍita U Thitthila Mahā Thero – Burma (Myanmar)
5. Ven. U Visuddha Mahā Thero – Burma (Myanmar)
6. Phra Ariyanandamuni – Thailand
7. Phra Nirantarañānamuni – Thailand
8. Ven. Dilowa Hutuktu – Mongolia
9. Shirob-Jaltso (China)
10. Rosen Takashina (Japan)

The first Board of Honorary Editors comprised the following:

1. Phya Anuman Rajadhon - Thailand
2. Prof. P.V. Bapat – India
3. Prof. F.D.K. Bosch – Holland
4. Dr. Chao Pu-chu – China
5. Dr. E. Conze– England
6. Prof. Damdin-süren
7. Prof. Paul Demiéville – France
8. Prof. Nalinaksha Dutt – India
9. Prof. Jean Filliozat – France
10. Prof. E. Frauwallner – Austria
11. Dr. Richard A. Gard - USA
12. Prof. H. von Glasenapp – Germany
13. Lama Anagarika Govinda
14. Prof. Helmut Hoffman
15. Miss I. B. Horner – England
16. Mr. Christmas Humphreys – England
17. Dr. B. C. Law – India
18. Prof. F.D. Lessing -  USA
19. Dr. U Lu Pe Win – Burma (Myanmar)
20. Dr. Shoson Miyamoto – Japan
21. Prof. Heinz Mode– Germany
22. Dr. Makoto Nagai – Japan
23. Prof. S. Paranavitana – Ceylon (Sri Lanka)
24. Prof. Niharranjan Ray – India
25. Prof. Rahula Sankrityayana – India
26. Prof. Tan Yun-Shan – India
27. Prof. Giuseppe Tucci – Italy
28. Prof. Ernst Waldschmidt – Germany
29. Prof. Friedrich Weller – Germany
30. Prof. O. H. de A. Wijesekera – Ceylon (Sri Lanka)

Volumes

Prof. Malalasekera planned to publish the whole encyclopaedia in ten volumes, each volume containing around 1500 pages in four fascicles. Later this idea was given up and it was suggested around 750 pages for one volume. Each fascicle was published separately so that the process of publication was expedited. In May 1957, Prof. Malalasekera and the Editorial Board released a very small volume of 83 pages with specimen articles inviting comments and criticisms of the scholars and the general public. Reviews and comments received on this specimen volume enabled the editors to come up with a better fascicle in 1961. The following table summarises the publication of all volumes up to now.

A copy of Volume of Specimen Articles published in 1957

This is the Fascicle 3 of Volume VI published in 2002

Vol. no.	Fascicles	Headwords	Editor-in-Chief	Year of Publication
1	1 - 4	A – Aoki Bunkyo	Prof. G.P. Malalasekera	1961 – 1965
2	1 - 4	Āpa – Bharhut	Prof. G.P. Malalasekera	1966 – 1968
3	1 - 3	Bharinideva - Burlingame	Prof. G.P. Malalasekera	1971 – 1973
3	4	Burma – CauraVidvaṃsana	Dr. J.D. Dhirasekera	1977
4	1 - 2	Causality - Democracy	Dr. J.D. Dhirasekera	1979 – 1984
4	3 - 4	Demonology – Dveṣa	Dr. W.G. Weeraratne	1988 – 1989
5	1 - 4	Earth – Japan	Dr. W.G. Weeraratne	1990 – 1993
6	1 - 4	Jarā – Minayeff	Dr. W.G. Weeraratne	1996 – 2002
7	1 - 4	Mind – Sāsanavaṃsa	Dr. W.G. Weeraratne	2003 – 2006
8	1 - 3	Sātavāhana–Zong a-han	Dr. W.G. Weeraratne	2007 – 2009

It appears that the initial ten volume scheme had been given up for eight content volumes and one index volume making altogether nine volumes.  The index volume is yet to be finalised.

Former Editors-in-chief

Following is a list former Editors-in-chief of Encyclopaedia of Buddhism.

01. G. P. Malalasekera

Founder editor-in-chief: He earned his BA in 1919 from University of London and MA and PhD concurrently in 1925 from School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London. He joined University College, Colombo as a lecturer in Pāli in1927. Subsequently he was appointed the in-charge of Sinhala, Pāli and Sanskrit. When University of Ceylon was established in 1942 Malalasekera was appointed Professor of Pāli, and when the university was moved to Peradeniya in 1952 he continued as professor of Pāli and was appointed the head of the Department of Pāli, and later Dean of the faculty of arts at the same university.

He was the first Ambassador of Ceylon to USSR and later to Czechoslovakia, Poland and Romania as well. Subsequently, he functioned as the High Commissioner of Ceylon in Canada and was the Permanent Representative of Ceylon for UN in New York.

Although appointed as Ambassador to USSR in 1957, two years after he became the editor-in-chief of the Encyclopaedia of Buddhism, he simultaneously covered the duties of editor-in-chief of the Encyclopaedia of Buddhism. He wrote the preface for the first fascicle while he was serving in Moscow. As the founder editor-in-chief, Prof. Malalasekera laid a firm foundation upon which the Encyclopaedia of Buddhism was to grow. His death at the age of 73 in 1973 marked the conclusion of the multi-faceted work of one of the most illustrious orientalists, educationists and diplomats of contemporary Sri Lanka.

02. O. H. de A. Wijesekera

Former professor of Sanskrit at University of Ceylon and sometime Vice-chancellor of University of Colombo, Wijesekera was one of the brilliant students of Prof. Malalasekera, whose persuasion made him follow oriental disciplines. He completed his BA (Hons) in the University of Colombo and earned PhD from School for Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London. He served as Visiting Fellow at Harvard University and Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts. He was an Honorary Editor of the encyclopaedia from its very beginning and joined as editor-in-chief in 1973 after the death of Prof. Malalasekera. He retired from the encyclopaedia in 1976 and died in 1990 at the age of eighty.

03. Jotiya Dhirasekera

Former director of Post-Graduate Institute of Pāli and Buddhist Studies, University of Kelaniya, Dr. Dhirasekera was a student of both Prof. Malalasekera and Dr. O. H. de A. Wijesekera. He taught Pāli and Buddhist studies at University of Peradeniya before he moved to University of Toronto to teach Buddhist studies. In 1977, he joined Encyclopaedia of Buddhism as Editor-in-chief and continued to serve in that capacity until his retirement in 1984. At the age 70, he entered the Buddhist monkhood under the name, Dhammavihārī and passed away in 2010.

04. Bandhula Jayawardhana

Mr. Bandhula Jayawardhana completed his BA in Western Philosophy at University of Peradeniya and joined the encyclopaedia as an Assistant Editor at the very beginning of this project in 1955. In 1979 he became Deputy Editor-in-chief and, at the retirement of Dr. Jotiya Dhirasekera, was promoted to Editor-in-chief in 1985 and functioned in that capacity till his retirement in 1987. Mr. Jayawardhana, in addition to being a scholar of Buddhism and western philosophy, was a known playwriter and director in Sinhala and English.He died at 75 in 2003.

05. W. G. Weeraratne

Dr. Weerarathne joined the encyclopaedia in 1959 as an Assistant Editor. Being an undergraduate student of Prof. Malalasekera at Peradeniya, he completed his MA in Pāli (Peradeniya) and PhD at Lancaster University, UK, and became Editor-in-chief in 1990 after Bandhula Jayawardhana. In his long career at the encyclopaedia Dr. Weeraratne managed to complete its five last volumes with limited resources. By the time he passed away in 2014 he was working on an Index Volume for the entire encyclopaedia. 

Assistant Editors and Deputy Editors

The initial staff of the encyclopaedia comprised four Assistant Editors and five editorial assistants in addition to Prof. Malalasekera as editor-in-chief. What follows is a list of all (assistant and deputy) editors who have served Encyclopaedia of Buddhism.Figures in the parenthesis show their recruitment and retirement as an editor in the encyclopaedia.

1. Dr. (Ms.) Lucy de Soysa (Assist. Edit. 1955 – 1958)
2. Bandhuala Jayawardhana (Assit. Edit. 1955 – 1978, Dep. Edit. 1979 – 1985, Chief 1985 - 1987)
3. H.S. Cooray (Assist. Edit. 1955 – 1958)
4. Ms. Karpales (Assist. Edit. 1955 – 1958)
5. Hayasima (Assist. Edit. 1956 – 1957)
6. Tissa Rajapatirana (Assist. Edit. 1957 – 1959)
7. D.T. Devendra (Assist. Edit. 1957 – 1966)
8. Ms. L.R. Gunasekera (Assist. Edit. 1957 – 1964, died)
9. H.G.A. Van Zeist (Assist. Edit. 1957)
10. Nuwan Thang Thai (Assist. Edit. 1958 – 1960)
11. E.H. Perera (Assist. Edit. 1958 - 1978)
12. Y. Karunadasa (Assist. Edit. 1958 – 1959)
13. R.A. Gunathileke (Assist. Edit. 1958 – 1959)
14. C. Witanachchi (Assist. Edit. 1958 – 1960)
15. Ms. I. Karunaratne (Assist. Edit. 1958 – 1986)
16. W.G. Weerarathne (Assist. Edit. 1959 – 1989, Chief 1990 – 2014)
17. H.R. Perera (Assist. Edit. 1960 – 1978)
18. W.S. Karunatilleke (Assist. Edit. 1960 – 1961)
19. Upali Karunaratne (Assist. Edit. 1960 – 1982)
20. D.J. Kalupahana (Assist. Edit. 1960 – 1961)
21. A.G.S. Kariyawasam (Assist. Edit. 1960 – 1985, Dept. Edit 1986 – 1989)
22. S. K. Nanayakkara (Assist. Edit. 1961 – 1989, Dept. Edit. 1990 -
23. Koyo Tamura (Assist. Edit. 1963 – 1965)
24. Ms. Gauri Wijesekera (Assist. Edit. 1964 – 1966)
25. Sodo Mori (Assist. Edit. 1965 – 1967)
26. K.D. Somaratne (Assist. Edit. 1966 – 1975)
27.  A.D.T.E. Perera (Assist. Edit. 1967 – 1994)
28. C. S. Ranasinghe (Assist. Edit. 1968 – 1978)
29. M. Karaluvinna (Assist. Edit. 1968 – 1994)
30. Senerath Wijesundara (Assist. Edit. 1979 – 1987)
31. Rev. Thembiliyana Ariyadhamma (Assist. Edit. 1993 – 1997)
32. D. Saddhasena (Assist. Edit. 1993 – 2003)
33. A.M. Ruwan Bandara Adhikari (Assit. Edit. 1993 – todate)
34. K. Arunasiri (Dept. Edit. 1998 – 2001)

Present Editorial Board

Ministry of Buddha Sasana in collaboration with the Department of Buddhist Affairs appointed new Editorial Board effective from January 2018 with the view of achieving two goals. Firstly, the emphasis laid on the revision of whole encyclopaedia before publishing as second edition. Secondly, the encyclopaedia needs to be published online. With these new appointments the editorial board comprises four editors, including editor-in-chief.

Asanga Tilakaratne

Editor-in-chief

Tripiṭakavedi (Sri Lanka), Pandit (Sri Lanka), BA (Hons) (Peradeniya), MA in Western Philosophy (Hawaii), PhD in Comparative Philosophy (Hawaii).

Formerly professor and head of the department of Buddhist philosophy and director (2003-2006), Postgraduate Institute of Pali and Buddhist Studies, University of Kelaniya; Chair Professor of Pali and Buddhist Studies, University of Colombo since 2009.

Bertram Gregory Liyanage

Deputy Editor

Pandit (Sri Lanka), MA in Sanskrit (Pune), PGDip in Indian Logic and Epistemology (Pune); Dip in Journalism (Colombo)

Ruwan Bandara Adhikari

Assistant Editor        

Tripiṭakavedi (Sri Lanka), BA (Kelaniya), MA in Buddhist Studies (Kelaniya)            

Rev. Akiriye Somananda, PhD

Assistant Editor

Pandit (Sri Lanka), BA (Hons) (Peradeniya), MA in Buddhist Studies (Kelaniya), PhD in Pali Language (Peradeniya)

Work Schedule

The new editorial board has already identified several areas in the encyclopaedia to be improved. In addition to updating certain articles by way of revising the content, certain missed out themes will be covered by writing fresh articles.

Moreover, the editorial board has identified the need to establishing a new honorary board of editors comprising recognised senior experts in different fields of Buddhism and a board of consulting editors who will be invited to contribute on specific themes.

Development of web-application, which will make publishing the encyclopaedia online possible, has been identified as a prime concern.  It is hoped that the online version will greatly enhance the accessibility of the encyclopaedia by the scholars and students of Buddhism all over the world. It is the ambition of the editorial board to have at least the first fascicle of the first volume ready for online publication by the end of 2018. The edited version will also be published in printed medium for the sake of the conventional users.

External Links

http://mobs.gov.lk/en/departments/encyclopaedia-of-buddhism

The Encyclopaedia of Buddhism

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