On September 3, 2026, the College of Religious Studies, Mahidol University, in collaboration with the Thailand Foundation, the Dhammachai Tipitaka Project, and Wat Phanan Choeng Worawihan, organized the project entitled “Patterns of Fabric, Patterns of the Land, Art of Script: From Palm-Leaf Manuscripts to Textiles: Faith, Religion, and Craftsmanship Woven into the Land of Thailand.” The event was held at the Namthong Khunwisan Conference Room, 3rd Floor, College of Religious Studies, Mahidol University.
As part of the event, staff members of the Dhammachai Tipitaka Project guided visitors through various activity stations featured in the exhibition, including palm-leaf manuscript inscription, an exhibition of palm-leaf manuscripts from four manuscript traditions, traditional manuscript wrapping cloths, and yantra writing. These activities provided participants with an opportunity to learn about traditional knowledge, Thai arts and cultural heritage, and craftsmanship associated with palm-leaf manuscripts and Thailand’s Buddhist heritage.
Dr. Suchada Srisetthaworakul and staff members of the Center for the Study of Ancient Manuscripts (CSAM) conducted training on the use of the ODEM 2026 program for 11 students from Silpakorn University, who participated as volunteers in transliterating palm-leaf manuscripts of the Pali Tipiṭaka written in Khmer script into Romanized Pali.
Phra Maha Phongsak Thanio, Ph.D., Head of the Dhammachai Tipiṭaka Project, and Dr. Suchada Srisetthaworakul, Head of the Center for the Study of Ancient Manuscripts (CSAM), served as speakers in the online panel discussion “AI Understands Dhamma: The Future of AI Based on the Tipiṭaka.
"The Dhammachai Tipitaka Project organized the workshop on “Preserving Precious Textiles: Safeguarding Palm-Leaf Manuscripts,” with the participation of experts from various fields, including:
The participants exchanged knowledge on the preservation of palm-leaf manuscript wrapping cloths. In the afternoon, they visited a manuscript repository at Wat Phanan Choeng Worawihan to discuss approaches for categorizing the wrapping cloths of palm-leaf manuscripts in preparation for a future exhibition."
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Ven. Phra Maha Phongsak Thanio, Ph.D., taught the course “Samatha-Vipassana in Buddhism and Modern Mindfulness” to students at Ryukoku University in Kyoto, Japan, with a total enrollment of 70 students. The course encompassed both theoretical foundations of meditation in Buddhism and practical components, providing students with opportunities to engage in meditation practice during class sessions. In addition, students were assigned to continue their practice outside the classroom and document their experiences in a Meditation Diary to assess psychological changes in their daily lives.
This initiative represents an academic collaboration that reflects a growing interest in the study of Buddhism within a contemporary context, and it attracted attention from several media outlets in Thailand.
Ven. Pongsak Thaniyo, Ph.D., Head of the Dhammachai Tipiṭaka Project Division, delivered a lecture on “Buddhism Along the Silk Road” to 60 students from the International Program, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University. The lecture explored the background of Buddhism, the history of the Silk Road, and the spread of Buddhism along this historic trade route.
Professor Shoba Rani Dash from Otani University, Kyoto, Japan, conducted research on the Bhikkhunī Vibhaṅga, using the ITAP program of the Dhammachai Tipiṭaka Project to create a text-aligned table of variant readings, clearly showing differences across seven sources.
Ven. Phra Maha Phongsak Thanio, Ph.D., delivered a lecture titled “Empowering Youth in Excellence and Character, Together” at a major international academic seminar, “Multinational Collaboration to Cultivate Character, Moral Values, and Wisdom for Peaceful and Sustainable Societies,” on 28 February.
Dr. Bunchird Chaowarithreonglith and Dr. Suchada Srisetthaworakul conducted research on Khom manuscripts of the Bhikkhunīvibhaṅga and Ānisaṅsa in collaboration with Professor Shoba Rani Dash at Otani University from 16–26 February 2026.
The staff of the Dhammachai Tipitaka Project organized a computational workshop in collaboration with Dr. Charles Li, an expert in Computational Philology from the University of Hamburg, Germany. The workshop focused on the application of algorithms for clustering Pali vocabulary, with the aim of facilitating more efficient analysis of textual readings in the Tipitaka for scholars.
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