' The Buddhist Holy Book '...

So when someone asks “what is the Buddhist holy book?”, the honest answer is a question back: whose Buddhism, and which tradition? This page is a map of the whole terrain. ........................................................................................................................................ Single holy book?................................................................................................................................... None; no one scripture that every Buddhist accepts as the whole of the canon Oldest complete collection................................................................................................................................ The Pali Canon, the Tipitaka or Three Baskets, preserved by the Theravada tradition The three baskets.................................................................................................................................... Vinaya (the monastic life), Sutta (the discourses of the Buddha), and Abhidhamma (scholasticism) First written down.................................................................................................................................... In Sri Lanka around 29 BCE, by Theravada tradition, after roughly four centuries of oral transmission Mahayana sutras................................................................................................................................... Composed mainly in Sanskrit from roughly the first century BCE onward; Mahayana reveres them as the Buddha’s word, most historians as later compositions Canons in use today ........................................................................................................................................ Three, each a library rather than a single book: the Pali, the Chinese, and the Tibetan......................... from e-buddhism.com