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A Report on the Fifth Meeting of the Electronic Buddhist Text Initiative

Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, January 18-21, 1999. [Please also see the report on the same meeting by Lou Burnard

The fifth meeting of the EBTI was held in the form of a joint meeting of the Pacific Neighborhood Consortium (PNC), Scholars Engaged in Electronic Resources (SEER) and the Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative (ECAI).

As usual, we were able to enjoy numerous presentations of Buddhist-related databases, text input projects, preservation projects, digitized Buddhist art, lexicons and so forth. Many of the groups had presented before, and thus their reports were of an update nature, but there were also a significant number of new groups represented.

It was often especially rewarding to see the repeat presentations, as the influence of the input and exchange of information gained through presence at prior meetings was especially evident. That is to say, the developing projects showed not only an enhanced degree of technical sophistication and a greater body of data, but also a greater understanding of the principles of collaboration, cooperation and standardization, which are the three underlying themes in the creation and growth of the EBTI.

A major example of collaboration can be seen in the recent decision of the SAT and CBETA projects to collaborate in the development of a comprehensive online East Asian Buddhist canon. From many other projects, free (or very inexpensive) CD-ROMs which contain large amounts of data useful for Buddhist research are proliferating.

In the area of markup, we are naturally beginning to see a rapid growth in awareness of XML, the newly developing text format for the internet, which will provide browsing capabilities coupled with markup features which will allow for databasing capabilities, as well as assignment of meaning to markup.

List of Presentations

[Listed below are the EBTI sessions, and a couple of relevant presentations done by other groups. For a full list of PNC, SEER, ECAI and EBTI seminars, please see the Academia Sinica web site at <www.sinica.edu.tw>]

To see a brief explanation regarding the content of a particular project, please click the bracketed text marked [NEW] or [UPDATE] alongside the project title.

EBTI-Related Presentations

Archives

• "Buddhist Studies and Buddhism in Russia and Buryatia: Electronic Bibliography" [UPDATE] --- Tsymjit Vanchikova, Academy of Sciences and Buddhist Studies, Buryatia Republic
• "The IDP (International Dunhuang Project) Interactive Web Database of Manuscripts and the Addition of the Stein Photographic Archive" [UPDATE] --- Susan Whitfield and Colin Chinnery, British Library, UK
• "Museum Infomatics Project" [UPDATE] --- Thomas Duncan, UC Berkeley, USA
• "The Huntington Archives" New China Suite: A Demonstration of the Potential of ECAI and the Arts [UPDATE] --- John Huntington, Ohio State University

Chinese Texts

• "CBETA and Taisho Tripitaka Project" [NEW] --- Ven. Huimin, Aming Tu, Christian Wittern, The Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association (CBETA), Taiwan
• "Knots in the Net: Steps to Standardization of Electronic Buddhist Texts" [NEW] --- Christian Wittern, Chung-Hwa Institute, Taiwan
• "Using XML for Dunhuang Manuscripts Database" [NEW] --- Kosei Ishii, Komazawa Junior College, Japan
• "On the Missing-Characters (GAIJI) of the Taisho Tripitaka Text Database Published by SAT" [NEW] --- Shigeki Moro, SAT, Japan
• "The Activities of the Mojikyo Font Center (MFC)" [NEW] --- Tokio Furuya and Tsuneo Yatagai, MFC, Japan
• "The Resolutions for Scanning Taisho Canon" [NEW] --- H. J. Lee, Chiau-Tong University, Taiwan

Sanskrit, Pali, Tocharian, Prakrit Texts

• "Linking Methods as a Basis for Cross-Linguistic Text Retrieval: Requirements and Solutions" [NEW] --- Jost Gippert, University of Frankfurt, Germany
• "The Fragile Palm Leaves Project: Preservation of Pali Materials" [UPDATE] --- Peter Skilling, Fragile Palm Leaves, Thailand
• "Chattha Sangayana CD-ROM" [UPDATE] --- Dhananjay Chavan, Vipassana Foundation Institute, India
• "The Construction of Sanskrit Database for a new Sanskrit Dictionary" [UPDATE] --- Jong-cheol Lee, Academy of Korean Studies, Korea
• "Input of Sanskrit Buddhist Texts on Mahayana Dharanis and Strotras of Nepal and Its Importance to Buddhist World" [NEW] --- Min Bahadur Shakya, Nagarjuna Institute, Nepal

Tibetan Texts

• "Software Development for Windows Application for Tibetan Language Materials" [NEW] --- Marvin Moser, Tibetan for Windows and Lucent Technologies USA
• "Asian Classics Input Projects 1999" [UPDATE] --- Robert Chilton, Asian Classics Input Project, USA
• "Automatic Recognition of Tibetan Buddhist Text by Computer" [UPDATE] --- Masami Kojima, Yoshiyuki Kawazoe, and Masayuki Kimura, Tohoku Technical University, Japan
• "Making High Quality Digital Image Data of Tibetan Tripitaka Beijing Edition: Condition of the Highest Resolution Photographs" [UPDATE] --- Seiki Miyashita, Miyuki Shibata, Akio Minoura and Yutaka Katoka, Otani University, Japan

Korean Texts Session

• "The Complete Works of Korean Buddhism (Han'guk bulgyo jeonseo) and the Korean Version of the Goryeo Buddhist Canon on the WWW" [NEW] Yong Kyu Lee, Keum Suk Lee, Young Sik Hong, Tae Sik Han (Ven. Bogwang), Dongguk University, Korea
• "The Input and Translation of the Works of Wonhyo" [NEW] --- Sungtaek Cho, State University of New York-Stony Brook, USA
• "The Technical Solution in the Computerization of the Tripitaka Koreana: 4 Byte Code System, Word Processing and Corrective Programs" [UPDATE] --- Chôngnim Sunim, Korea

Dictionaries

• "A Tibetan-Buddhist Dictionary: Electronic Version from Rangjung Yeshe Publications" [NEW] --- Erik Hein Schmidt, Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery, Nepal
• "The Tibetan Dictionary/Database/Electronic Book/Text Editor of the Drukpa Kagyu Heritage Foundation" [UPDATE] --- Tony Duff, Padma Karpo Translation Committee, Nepal
• "Digital Dictionary of East Asian Buddhist Terms" [UPDATE] --- Charles Muller, Toyo Gakuen University, Japan

Resources in Chinese Buddhism

• "Biographical Database for Chinese Buddhist Nuns" [NEW] --- Dr. Yi Fa, Fo Kuang Shan Foundation/UC Berkeley, Taiwan
• "Georeference for Sites of Buddhist Monasteries in the Kushan Empire" [NEW] --- Bruce Williams, UC Berkeley, USA
• "The Demonstration of Vajracchedika-sutra CD" [NEW] --- Jimmy Chang, Electronic Buddhadharma Society, Taiwan
• "Buddhist Music &Wind Records" [NEW] --- Chin-Tsung Yang, Wind Records Co., Taiwan
• "The Searching Functions of Ven. Yin-shung CD" [NEW] --- Ven. Houguan, Master Yin-Shung Foundation, Taiwan
• "Buddhist Studies Information Network Project" [UPDATE] --- Aming Tu, The Chung-Hwa Institute of Buddhist Studies, Taiwan