Editing Sacred language (section)

==Buddhism==
When the [[Gautama Buddha|Buddha]]'s [[sutra]]s were first written down, probably in [[Pali]], there were around 20 schools, each with their own version derived from the original. The present [[Pāli Canon]] originates from the [[Tamrashatiya|Tamrashatiya school]]. The Chinese and Tibetan canons mainly derive from the [[Sarvastivada]], originally written in [[Sanskrit]], of which fragments remain. The texts were translated into [[Chinese language|Chinese]] and [[Lhasa Tibetan|Tibetan]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Heart of Buddha's Teachings|last=Hahn|first=Thich Nhat|publisher=Harmony|year=2015|pages=16}}</ref>

[[Theravada]] Buddhism uses Pali as its main liturgical language and prefers that scripture be studied in the original Pali.{{Citation needed|date=June 2019}} Pali is derived from [[Sanskrit]].<ref name=Norman>{{cite book| last = Norman | first = Kenneth Roy | author-link = K. R. Norman | title = Pali Literature | publisher = Otto Harrassowitz | date = 1983 | location = Wiesbaden | pages = 2{{ndash}}3 | language = en |isbn = 3-447-02285-X}}</ref> In [[Thailand]], Pali is transliterated into the [[Thai alphabet]],{{Citation needed|date=June 2019}} resulting in a Thai pronunciation of the Pali language. Something similar also happens in Myanmar, where Pali is also transliterated into the [[Burmese alphabet]], also resulting in a Burmese pronunciation of Pali.

[[Mahayana]] Buddhism, now only followed by a small minority in [[South Asia]] makes little use of its original language, Sanskrit, mostly using versions of the local language. In [[East Asia]], [[Classical Chinese]] is mainly used.{{Citation needed|date=June 2019}} In Japan, texts are written in [[Kanji|Chinese characters]] and read out or recited with the [[Kanji#Readings|Japanese pronunciations]] of their constituent characters.<ref>{{citation|editor-last=Buswell|editor-first=Robert E.|title=Encyclopedia of Buddhism|volume=1|year=2003|page=137|location=London|publisher=Macmillan}}.</ref>

In [[Vajrayana]] Buddhism, [[Tibetan Buddhism]] is the main surviving school, and [[Classical Tibetan]] is the main language used for study,<ref>{{Cite web|title=What is Tibetan Buddhism?|url=http://gothenburg.chineseconsulate.org/eng/zt/xzwt/t218250.htm|website=Consulate-General of the People's Republic of China in Gothenburg|access-date=2020-05-22}}</ref> although the Tibetan Buddhist canon was also translated into other languages, such as [[Mongolian language|Mongolian]] and [[Manchu language|Manchu]].<ref>Orzech, Charles D. (general editor), 2011. ''Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia.'' Brill, p. 540.</ref> Many items of [[Sanskrit Buddhist literature]] have been preserved because they were exported to Tibet, with copies of unknown ancient Sanskrit texts surfacing in Tibet as recently as 2003.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/neighbours/story/20170612-sanskrit-tibet-chinese-scholars-buddhism-986510-2017-06-03|title = The lost Sanskrit treasures of Tibet| date=3 June 2017 }}</ref> Sanskrit was valued in Tibet as the elegant language of the gods.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43299940|jstor=43299940|title=Sanskrit in Tibetan Literature|last1=Lama|first1=His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai|journal=The Tibet Journal|year=1979|volume=4|issue=2|pages=3–5}}</ref> Although in Tibetan Buddhist [[deity yoga]] the rest of the [[sadhana]] is generally recited in Tibetan, the [[mantra]] portion of the practice is usually retained in its original Sanskrit.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://fpmt.org/education/teachings/texts/mantras/|title=Mantras – FPMT|date=27 April 2017}}</ref>

In [[Nepal]], the [[Newar Buddhism|Newar Buddhist]] form of Vajrayana is a storehouse of ancient Sanskrit [[Buddhist texts]], many of which are now only extant in [[Nepal]].<ref>{{cite book |last= Gutschow |first= Niels |title= Architecture of the Newars: A History of Building Typologies and Details in Nepal |date= November 2011 |publisher= Serindia Publications |location= Chicago |isbn=978-1-932476-54-5 |page= 707}}</ref> Whatever language is used, [[Judith Simmer-Brown]] explains that a [[tantra|tantric]] Vajrayana text is often written in an obscure [[twilight language]] so that it cannot be understood by anyone without the verbal explanation of a [[guru|qualified teacher]].<ref>
{{cite book |author-link=Judith Simmer-Brown |last=Simmer-Brown |first=Judith |year=2002 |title=Dakini's Warm Breath: The Feminine Principle in Tibetan Buddhism |location=Boston, Massachusetts |publisher=Shambhala Publications|page=169|isbn=978-1-57062-920-4}}</ref>

[[Old Tamil]] was used for [[Sangam literature|Sangam]] epics of [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] and [[Jainism|Jain]] philosophy.<ref>{{cite book |author=Cornelius Crowley, Geetha Ganapathy-Doré, Michel Naumann|year=2017|title=Heritage and Ruptures in Indian Literature, Culture and Cinema|publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing|isbn=978-1-4438-9887-4}}</ref>