Dhamma Society - dhammasociety.org

Thanpuying M.L. MANIRATANA BUNNAG, B.E.2465-2543

Founder and First Chairwoman
The Dhamma Society Fund and the World Tipiṭaka Project in Roman-script
under the Patronage of
His Holiness the Supreme Patriarch of Thailand

The World Tipiṭaka Project in Roman script was originally conceived in B.E.2542 (1999) by M.L. Maniratana Bunnag, founder of the Dhamma Society and its first chairperson, one year before she passed away in 2000. The printing of the sacred script was organised in supreme homage to the Dhamma, the enlightened heritage of humanity which is now preserved in the Pāḷi Tipiṭaka of the Buddhist Theravāda tradition. The Project was also a humble gesture of profound gratitude by the late M.L. Maniratana Bunnag as well as by her family and friends to honour Their Majesties King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit, who had bestowed honour and kindness upon her during her eventful 50-year service in the Royal Household as Lady-in-Waiting to Her Majesty the Queen since the first day of the Royal Wedding in 1950.

It was in 1959 during the State Visit to the People's Republic of Burma that the late M.L. Maniratana Bunnag was included in the Royal Suite of Their Majesties King and Queen of Thailand to visit the Holy Cave in Yongon, the site of the Great International Council from which the new and authoritative World Tipiṭaka Edition was based. Such was the experience that she never forgot for the rest of her life.

It was, therefore, an extraordinary honour and great privilege for the Dhamma Society that in 1999, the Pāḷi Tipiṭaka manuscript from this Great International Council was unexpectedly presented to the late M.L. Maniratana Bunnag for support and publication in Roman script, almost 50 years after it was first printed in Burmese script.

The Dhamma Society Fund was later organised accordingly by her family and friends to continue the work of proof-reading and printing of the Roman-script Tipiṭaka in 40 volumes. The World Tipiṭaka Edition was completed after 6 years of work and was inaugurated in B.E.2548 (2005) in Colombo, Sri Lanka, by Her Royal Highness Princess Galyani Vadhana Krom Luang Naradhiwas Rajanagarindra, elder sister of His Majesty the King and the Royal Matriarch of Thailand, who is the Honorary President of Tipiṭaka Presentation Worldwide.