the oldest buddhist text found

[Jerry.Losty at mail.bl.uk]

In response to the points raised, I am asked by Graham Shaw, Deputy Director of 
the British Library's Oriental and India Office Collections, to make the 
following statement about the British Library-University of Washington Buddhist 
documents project. It is actually premature to make a more detailed announcement
than what has appeared in the press, as we are literally in the 'cataloguing 
stage' - deciphering, transliterating, arranging and rearranging fragments, and 
trying to identify the Buddhist canonical texts represented by comparison with 
other language versions - a laborious and lengthy process.  However, the 
following steps are being taken: 

a) a short statement (plus sample picture) will be appearing a.s.a.p. on OIOC's 
home-pages on the British Library's WWW link PORTICO - 
http://portico.bl.uk/oioc/

b) in collaboration with the University of Washington, the BL is planning to 
publish an overview volume on the scrolls in perhaps a year or so.

c) Professor Richard Salomon will be making interim reports to various academic 
conferences e.g. that of the American Oriental Society in Miami.


jerry.losty at bl.uk