Abstract:
The purposes of this research were to study the objectives, target reader groups and policies of 11 Buddhist book publishers, and to study the number, types and contents of books published by them between B.E. 2520-2527. It was found that there were 3 purposes of the production of Buddhist books in Thai : - (1) to propagate Dhamma for laymen (2) to increase textbooks in Pariyattidhamma study of monks and novices (3) to preserve, transliterate, translate and propagate the ancient Buddhist scriptures. The target reader groups, policies of Buddhist books production in Thai, types and contents of books were varied according to the objectives of each publisher. An important problem of the book production was inadequacy of funds. The total of books' volumes published between B.E. 2520-2527 was 880 (682 titles), and most of them were published by Mahamakut Rajavidyalaya. Types of publication were general Buddhist books, textbooks in Pariyattidhamma study, reference books; Buddhist scriptures and the Tripitaka. The most popular contents were about Dhamma and life, Dhamma practice.