The Pali Canon is the central textual basis for the Theravadin School of Buddhism. It was recited orally for centuries before being written down in Pali in Sri Lanka in the 1st century BCE, and is called the Tipitaka because it has three “baskets” or parts: the suttas (discourses, usually the words of the Buddha), the vinaya (monastic regulations), and abhidhamma (analysis and interpretation of Buddhist doctrine). The Pali Text Society’s English translation of the Tipitaka (the three sections of the Pali Canon) fills over 12,000 pages in approximately fifty hardbound volumes.
