Wow, that’s brilliant! Well done to the translator and the team including Deepika, behind him!
!
With metta
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Will the recording of this even be available online in the future?
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Sadhu, Sadhu, Sadhu.
This is as if my dream come true.
Thank all of you so worked hard so far to get to this point.
Do you plan any more launches in another country?
Perhaps Maynmar of Singapore?
Peherhaps in Australia.
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It should be, hopefully Deepika (or one of our Sri Lankan friends) will post a link.
Nope! I just want to get back to work.
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Perhaps you can monitor the traffic flow of SC and measure the success of the launch.
It was a blisfull evening at the Nelum Pokuna. We had a fully packed audience with four TV screens outside for the people who could not get in. From a distance the stage looked like deva vimana with the Samdhi Budda in the background. Here are some photos.
!(upload://pY9WCINpn044rtgulweaO5hlyNX.jpg)![Wishwa_Shanthi_23|690x460]
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Wow this is very impressive.
Good work Deepika.
Is that the one with the microphone in his hand?
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Next time when you organise an event you can hire two seat fillers.
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This is the feedback from a friend who visit the event
I happened to go because I was in the area on that day by happenstance. The place was packed with monks, school kids and “daham pasal” kids. It was quite clear that the majority had no idea about SuttaCentral and that it didn’t actually have a new Sinhala translation of the Pali Canon, but they kept repeating how it had the Tipitaka in 40 languages (the Sinhala talks seemed to have the wrong impression that it had some new Sinhala translation as well). It felt like an event organized in quick time to cater to an internationally known monk - not because of any genuine interest or understanding of what SuttaCentral was about.
Hopefully this kind of event will inspire some local monks to re-translate the Canon in modern-day Sinhala. Those who are fluent in English got a good introduction in what SuttaCentral had to offer which was helpful.
I didn’t wait to ask for feedback from anyone - honestly I think anyone who already has any interest in the suttas already knows about SuttaCentral, and those who don’t are probably not interested anyway. I do think however that it might have been eye-opening to some kids - how foreigners were taking sutta study seriously.
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What are “daham pasal” kids?
Well I think it is positive that the new generation in Sri Lanka is getting a taste of suttas- they often have to rely in others even to get access to locked Tripitaka books in temple libraries that are simply places for storing books of this sort.
I have handed out the suttacentral site name to the Buddhist sunday school children (daham pasal- dhamma school) that I teach in UK. The EBTs need to be liberated!
with metta
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Daham is the sinhala word for Dhamma, Pasala is School, kids are kids… so it is dhamma school kids
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Thank you for dropping by,
The place was packed with monks, school kids and “daham pasal” kids. - Yes the place was packed, there were about 2000 people including the guests sitting behind the stage and outside. We made it a point to invite about 200 high school students from Colombo schools, most students were from international schools where they study in English medium, the curriculum is based on the UK system and they do not have the opportuunity to learn ANY religion as a subject at school.
It was quite clear that the majority had no idea about SuttaCentral, Yes you are correct and that was one reason to organise this event, to introduce SuttaCentral to the Sri Lanakan people who do not use it yet.
…that it didn’t actually have a new Sinhala translation of the Pali Canon, - There was no mention of a NEW Sinhala translation except that the Zoysa translation is conveniently accessible on SC.
but they kept repeating how it had the Tipitaka in 40 languages (the Sinhala talks seemed to have the wrong impression that it had some new Sinhala translation as well). - **Yes, you are right, the non-English speaking Sri Lankan Buddhists were excited, they were over joyed that they can now conveniently access the words spoken by the Buddha. I am not sure about the wrong impression, they were simply happy to know the existance of the site.
It felt like an event organized in quick time to cater to an internationally known monk -
**Yes, this event was organised within 3 weeks, it made a big positive impact on Sri Lankan people, not just Buddhists.
Yes we wanted the “common variety, non English speaking people” in Sri Lanka also to get close this “internationally known monk”. Generally it is considered a previlage.
…not because of any genuine interest or understanding of what SuttaCentral was about.
is point is a defenite NO… SuttaCentral is about breaking any boundaries between people and the words spoken by the Buddha. In that sense this event was a stepping stone and was perfectly aligned with the principles.
**** sorry but I am not sure why the writer think this event had no genuine interest or understanding of what SC is about.**
Hopefully this kind of event will inspire some local monks to re-translate the Canon in modern-day Sinhala. - There are other tanslations in Sinhala, yes it is good if this event inspire others.
Those who are fluent in English got a good introduction in what SuttaCentral had to offer which was helpful. - Of course, the English speaking lot are privileged you know. But the others also now know they can access suttas easily and they will also be benefited to a certain level.
I didn’t wait to ask for feedback from anyone - Thats okay, it was very busy anyway, but we got loads of good, honest feedback, people rang even two days after the event with best wishes, thanked for organising this event, some poor people travelled the day befoe to get to Colombo, people were sincerely happy that they were able to witness this event, be in the same room with so many Sangha, chant, hear the voice of Bhante Sujato, @sujato get to know the existence of SC, a place to go to for the words spoken by the Buddha.
honestly I think anyone who already has any interest in the suttas already knows about SuttaCentral, - Yes this is good to know. Thanks.
and those who don’t are probably not interested anyway. - I dont know what to say here except this is not a Buddhist way to think, pleawse re think this line…
I do think however that it might have been eye-opening to some kids - It was an eye opener for lots of people not just kids.
how foreigners were taking sutta study seriously. - Most people in Sri Lanka know the English speaking word is reading Suttas. They are happy about it. We did not want the non English speaking common people in Sri Lanka to feel left out, hence our effort to introduce SC to Sri Lanka.
BTW… it would have been nice if the writer gave the feedback in person rather than via @SarathW1 Anyhow thanks for sharing it.
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The Zoysa translations appear to cover almost all of the Nikayas, apart from some of the more obscure parts of the KN, so that’s very impressive.
I’m pleased to have this clarified, since it’s something I can tell my Sri Lankan friends.
I see the translations would be from the mid-20th C. Are they considered difficult to read, or archaic [In the sense that the old PTS English translations sound archaic to modern English speakers]?
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It was a fairly modern translation at the time, but now quite dated. It’s still probably the best Sinhala translation available though - there are newer translations by Mahamevnawa and the Buddhist Cultural Center but they are somewhat oversimplified/summaries. Neither of them are freely available online which is disappointing.
This is one of the glaring issues in Sri Lankan Buddhism in my opinion - lay people who are not fluent in English tend to rely on monks to learn their suttas instead of studying on their own, which leads to a lot of confusion because it is hard to know which monks are reliable.
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The translations of suttas from Mahamevnawa are intended to be simple enough for non-specialists to understand them, especially the earliest translations of the MN. But they definitely are not summaries. The idea is that after reading them you should be able to make sense of the widely available BJT (which is much more literal) and make sense of it.
And there is currently an effort to put them all up free on-line. I’ll be sure to make a post when they are.
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I should have worded that sentence better. I meant the Mahamevnawa translation was simplified and the BCC one was a summary.
Also should mention that the Buddha Jayanti translation (which is the standard version used by monks generally) is also not freely available online and was also archaic even at the time. Bhante G (Abbot of Bhavana Society) was part of the translation panel back in the 1950s (because of his skill in the Burmese language) as a young 20-something monk and when he asked one of the senior monks why the translations were so hard to read he was told “this is to protect our heritage”.
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What this really means?
To me it sound like “keep in the dark and feed in bull shit”
Will there be mention made of the political situation in Sri Lanka, about creating peace between religious and ethnic groups?