Tripitaka Buddhist Buddhism Buddha...

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Integrated into the Tripitaka are the Jatakas or picture story, a visual interpretation of Buddha's life. The Jatakas stories are a important part in the visual arts of the particular country.

The probably oldest and most known version of the Tripitaka are the Pali scriptures of the Theravada Buddhism version. Aeside of the Tripitaka texts Jatakas illustrate the legendary stories of adventures Gautama Buddha has experienced in his 550 incarnations before he became the Buddha. He was the king of the monkeys, the parrots, the elephant, the king of Benares and Kalinga and adviser to other kings, hermits, monks, Brahmins etc. Each of its incarnations in his previous life has a special dedicated Jataka, there is more about the jatakas and the Tripitaka.
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The very first Tripitaka texts were formed at group councils of the Sangha (monastic orders). A senior monk asked a series of questions to assembled monks, sometimes numbering thousands. They replied by reciting the appropriate portion of the canon. The Buddha's teachings were preserved in this way for about 400 years, until Theravada monks wrote them down in Pali.

In the Mahayana Buddhism a different version of Tripitaka developed. A main Mahayana scripture, the Lotus Sutra, uses the term Tripitaka to refer to the literature of the early schools. On the other hand, the term Tripitaka had tended to become synonymous with Buddhist scriptures, and thus continued to be used for Chinese, Tibetan, Thai and Myanmar or Burmese collections.

The Chinese form of Tripitaka, "Sanzang" was sometimes used as an honorary title for a Buddhist monk who has mastered all the Tripiṭaka canons, in particular in the case of the Tang Dynasty monk Xuanzang, whose pilgrimage to India to study and bring Buddhist scriptures back to China was portrayed in the novel Journey to the West as "Tang Sanzang".

Because of the popularity of the story, the term in "Sanzang" is often erroneously understood as a name of the monk Xuanzang. One such screen version of this is the popular 1979 Monkey TV series.

Here is a picture of the Buddhist Tripitaka from a old monastery at Bagan, Burma or Myanmar. In the Monasteries at Bagan are still many old Tripitaka to see. If you want to have a look you need to go with a experienced tour guide.

-The Tripitaka War

In 1056 A.D., in Myanmar or Burma, the Buddhist Monk Shin Arahan, came from Thaton to Bagan. The dedicated Buddhist monk met a dynamic King Anawrahta and they started to make  historic changes at the capital of that time, Bagan and later to all Myanmar.

Anawrahta became a pure Theravada Buddhist with great dedication. First of all he abolished the Ari sect. To foster the Buddhism, he needed Buddhist scriptures or Tripitaka. King Manuha of Thaton in southern Myanmar had Buddhist scriptures but bluntly refused to share them with Anawrahta. In 1057 A.D. Anawrahta made war on Thaton (1057 A.D.), destroyed the Mon dynasty and thirty one elephant loads of the Buddhist scriptures were carried to Bagan.

Manuha and his family were taken prisoners and about 30.000 Mon crafts men, artistes and skilled workers were also brought to Bagan. Out of this historic event Myanmar or Burma emerged as a leading Buddhist country. Shin Arahan, Buddhist scriptures, Mon craftsmen and Anawrahta, with his people together started building the glorious Bagan.

Bagan people, during Anawrahta reign and after, became so well-versed in the Buddhist scriptures that, it is said, even village girls could discuss metaphysics with the learned monks from great monasteries.

In the years after Anawrahta's death persons among the royal class — King Kyaswa, Princess Thanbyin and others became great teacher of Buddhism and held held regular classes teaching monks the Tripitaka in Pali and Sanskrit texts.

-Buddha teachings come as Buddhism scriptures or the Buddhist bible.

Over time a lot of variants of Buddha's teaching has developed.

The main streams are manifested in two religious scriptures, one is the Theravada Buddhism direction and the other is Mahayana Buddhism plus countless sub directions.

Also a lot of different mediums were used for a Tripitaka. Some form of paper, bamboo slab, palm leaf, inscriptions in walls at various Buddhist Temple, but all finally are for the purpose to preserve history and to proliferate Buddhist tradition and teaching.

Probably the largest book ever has been a Tripitaka buildup at the Kuthodaw pagoda in Mandalay Myanmar or Burma.

This Myanmar Tripitaka stone libraries has hundreds of marble slabs with the Buddhist canonical texts of the Tripitaka inscribed. 729 marble slabs with the whole of the Tripitaka (Pali canon) in the Theravada Buddhism version are on display. Each stone table with Buddhist scriptures is housed in a small shrines.

Aside of this religious scripture at the Myanmar Buddhist temple there are the Jakata Stories, in modern words it could be defined as a book full of comics depicting the lifecycles of the Buddha. The Jakata stories are a part of the Tripitaka in visual form and there are many. Alone in the Pahtodawgyi Pagoda