The Pali Literature of Burma #248697

The Pali literature of Burma owes its existence to the Pali literature of India. It is many years since the latter was first explored by the great scholars and pioneers — Fausboll, Lassen, Rhys Davids, Trenckner, Childers, Oldenberg — whose reward has been a gain to Oriental learning vast enough to content even them. With time a part of the material discovered has been brought within the reach of students by critical editing. Buddhistic literature is immense in quantity and bewildering in varied interest, and it was never more difficult than now to avoid being too much of the specialist. But the student of Buddhism who limits himself to one language or looks for solution of all questions in one literature risks slipping into an orthodoxy of his own. A sounder principle has long guided Buddhist studies; modern research has gone forth, like As'oka's missionaries, to Further India, China, Japan, Tibet, Siam, and French indo-china, armed with patience as they were with conviction, as resolutely determined to learn as they were to teach.