Dhamma Stupa Chronicle – Trip to IBC (International Buddhist College) at Songkhla, Thailand

Reported by Ajahn Buja

A trip to IBC (International Buddhist College) at Songkhla, Thailand to meet Phra Ajahn Anandajoti who has been giving kind and invaluable advices for Dhamma Stupa project since the very beginning. He is a learned Pali Scholar ordained in Sri Lanka in 1996 and has deep and long experience of disseminating Pali and Tipitaka knowledge via the internet. He is also able to do programming on web.

This is a very good chance to discuss with him face to face after just having been contacting through the hyper-realm of the internet. He kindly explained how he has been using the on-line Pali Tipitaka in his works. He also himself developed the prototype web application for his own use. This is very invaluable experience for the Dhamma Stupa project not wasting time and resource to develop the working prototype to synthesize the program requirements. We can just ask for Phra Ajahn Anandajoti’s permission to use his prototype to develop the working web application and the design of the data architecture for the Dhamma Stupa Pali core.

There was also the sharing session to present and discuss about the Dhamma Stupa project to students of IBC. These people will be contributors and also be users of the project in the future.

IBC (International Buddhist College http://ibc.ac.th) is giving courses in English and Chinese. There are campuses in Songkhla and Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand.

The resident students are doing session of chanting and meditating in the morning and evening. Currently, there are also special sessions to chant the Abhidhamma dedicated to the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej.