Abstract:
This research work entitled 'Development of the Ancient Scripture's Retrieving and Conserving Systems for Buddhist Temples in Thailand' aims at; 1) survey and grouping various ancient scriptures of Buddhism found in temple in Thailand, 2) analyzing and index making of ancient scriptures of Buddhism found in temple in Thailand and 3) supporting the conservation of ancient scriptures to be
learning center of Buddhism and culture in Thailand. It was a qualitative research by using primary documentary analysis as main tool. The ancient scriptures werecollected from records of ancient texts and archaeological objects kept in Buddhist temples from northern, middle, north-east and southern parts of Thailand.
Collecting method was record template with its previous details of knowledge including knowledge section, category and division, scope. Finally collected data was brought for grouping and classifying its contents systematically.
The scripture query was done in places where already had preservation system but the survey of basic searching system had never done before. This was approaching survey. Its section classification was done by documentary analysis based on the manual book of survey, collecting information resources of ancient manuscripts, ancient scripture working book, title and title name of Buddhist texts.
Some scripture classified into section of ancient scriptures of National Library which had not yet surveyed before, was not found basic data, the researcher received information from residents especially Buddhist ecclesiastical monks. The survey was done in old communities and various temples to gain its reliable data. From ancient scripture s survey in northern part done in Payao, Phrae and
Nan provinces, it showed that the searching system was done by survey of the ancient manuscripts written in palm leaves pr preserved by Buddhist temples in Northern part of Thailand. It was classified through its resources and the presented
items of total scripture were ceel. The andient scriptures in Southern part of Thailand had not yet systematically classified into section, grouping and preservation arrangement according to academic work. The survey of ancient scriptures in middle and northern part of Thailand as recorded in National Library showed that there was only classification system of knowledge found in ancient scriptures, but its content arrangement into section was not yet done. It only focuses on the order arrangement of entry of documents which did not concern about its contents or manuscripts and there found no any temple having searching system of ancient scripture which causes the difficulty to access and search for Buddhist manuscripts. Therefore, researcher brought the data searching system and knowledge classification to systemize and content classifying by applying knowledge classifying each group into the section, category and division through its content analysis appeared in the structure of ancient text classification system of Buddhist ancient scriptures. The Buddhist temples and villagers who possess andient scriptures had no preservation management, its classification, amount of scripture survey and name list of the texts. These texts also were found in damage due to its lack of suitable
place to store them property for correct preservation therefore it needs the correct quideline for standardizine and awareness of importance of scripture preservation to Buddhist monks, temple and communities as the owners of such valuable
scriptures to be the learning resource and Buddhist heritages of Thailand for long time.