2015

Javier Schnake

  • Doctoral Candidate
  • École Pratique des Hautes Études, France
Picture of Javier Schnake

Project

Dhamma through Letters: The Vajirasaratthasangaha, a Sixteenth Century Pali Text from Northern Thailand.

Program

The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Dissertation Fellowships in Buddhist Studies

Abstract

This research is a philological investigation of a Buddhist text in Pali, the Vajirasaratthasangaha written in North Thailand (15-16th), which has never been the object of a full-fledged study. It aims to establish a critical edition of this text and its commentary, to translate this corpus, and to understand its place within the Buddhism of South-East Asia. This compendium is unique in the Pali literary landscape, in its mode of presentation as well as in its contents: each of its chapters is coded on the basis of linguistics mechanisms and games. It is an original synthesis of scholarly elements (hua jai, ekakkhara…) throwing new light on regional specificities in their practical and esoterical dimensions, and opening new ways for understanding the status of Pali as a sacred language.