THE latest version of a computerised database containing the Buddhist Tripitaka sits next to a set of old-style pictorial teaching aids dealing with Buddhism.

Using a communal database, the newly developed holy Canons are featured in the Roman, Thai, Khmer, Lao, Burmese, Lanna, Sinhalese and Devanagari scripts. The searchable database can be browsed simultaneously for the entire scripts in all eight languages.

The database contains information extracted from 194 volumes of Buddhist canons and textbooks, comprising 45 volumes of the Tripitaka in Thai, another 45 volumes of the Tripitaka in Pali, 57 volumes of corresponding Atthakatha scripts and 27 volumes of essential Buddhist teachings in Pali and 20 volumes of textbooks used in educating Buddhist monks and novices in Thailand.

The holy canons, "BUDSIR V, International Edition in Multiscripts" are available in two versions - one on CD and the other downloadable at www.budsir.org.

The BUDSIR V work is the 10th version under the Tripitaka project, which began in 1987, by Mahidol University's Computing Centre. The other agencies involved in the project include the Mahamakut Buddhist University, the Mahachula-longkorn Rajavidhyalaya University, the Religious Affairs Department and the Office of National Buddhism.

The canons will be presented to Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn on Tuesday at a government-commissioned ceremony at the Emerald Buddha Temple. She will then present them to His Holiness the Supreme Patriarch, who presides over the ceremony.

Mahidol University dean, Professor Emeritus Phornchai Matangkhasombat, said the BUDSIR V project had brought Buddhist teachings into the computer age, a far cry from the days when the Lord Buddha spread his message through word of mouth. Phra Rat Methaphorn, acting dean of Mahamakut Buddhist University, described the work as amazing, saying: "People living overseas can look into it simultaneously via the Internet."