Sixth Buddhist council

From Buddhist Encyclopedia

The Sixth Buddhist Council was held in Kaba Aye in Yangon (Rangoon) in 1954, eighty-three years after the fifth one was held in Mandalay. It was sponsored by the Burmese Government led by the Prime Minister, the Honorable U Nu. He authorized the construction of the Maha Passana Guha, "the great cave," which was an artificial cave like the one the First Buddhist Council was held. Upon its completion, the Council met on the 17th of May, 1954.

As in the preceding councils, its aim was to affirm and preserve the genuine Dhamma and Vinaya. However it was unique that the monks who joined it came from eight different countries. These 2,500 learned Elders came from Myanmar, Cambodia, India, Laos, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. The late Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw was appointed the noble task of asking the required questions about the Dhamma to the Venerable Bhadanta Vicittasarabhivamsa, who answered all of them learnedly and satisfactorily. By the time this council met all the participating countries had had the Pali Tipitaka rendered into their native scripts, with the exception of India.

The Council took two years, and the Tipitaka and its allied literature in all scripts were painstakingly examined with their differences noted down, the necessary corrections made, and collated. It was found that there was not much difference in the content of any of the texts. Finally, after the Council had officially approved the texts, all of the books of the Tipitaka and their Commentaries were prepared for printing on modern presses. This notable achievement was made possible through the dedicated efforts of the 2,500 monks and numerous lay people. Their work came to an end in May, 1956. According to local tradition, this was 2,500 years after the Lord Buddha's Parinibbāna.

This Council's work was a unique achievement in Buddhist history. The version of the Tipitaka in this Council has been recognized within the Theravada tradition as the pristine teachings of Buddha Gotama, and the most authoritative rendering today. After the scriptures had been examined thoroughly several times, they were put into print, covering 52 treatises in 40 volumes, or 8025 pages in total. At the end of this Council, all the participating countries had the Pali Tipitaka rendered into their native scripts, with the exception of India.

Doubts on the 6th Buddhist Council's Tipitaka

Since the year 2000, the authenticity of the currently published version of Tipitaka of the Sixth Budhist Council has been in some doubt, as some findings from the Dhamma Society Fund in Thailand have become more well known. The Dhamma Society Fund claims it has proof that after the first printing of the Tipitaka of Sixth Buddhist Council in 1958, it had been secretly replaced with the previous Burmese Fifth Buddhist Council Tipitaka. The Dhamma Society Fund found the inconsistencies by comparing some rare orginal Burmese versions of the 1957 and the 1958 Sixth Council editions with Burmese Fifth Council editions from before 1956, and all later (and current) Sixth Buddhist Council editions. It found that the current Sixth Council Edition is identical to the Bumese Fifth Council Edition. The motivation for this secret replacement would be that the other countries (Thailand, Sri Lanka) were not printing the Sixth Buddhist Council's Tipitaka, and were still publishing the old national editions also. Because of this Burma also went back to printing their old Tipitaka, but with the cover of the Sixth Buddhist Council's edition. The Dhamma Society Fund is currently printing the 'real' Sixth Buddhist Council Tiptaka with sponsorship from the Thai King and other Thai royalty, for distribution amongst the most prestigious libraries and institutes around the world. After this, they plan to publish the Sixth Buddhist Counil Tipitaka for free, via the internet.