The Tripiṭaka being translated by the BDK English Tripiṭaka Project is the Chinese Tripiṭaka, which was published over several years in Japan in the early part of the 20th century: The Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō. It is generally known as the “Taishō Edition,” and contains 2,920 works (3,053 including variant versions), 11,970 fascicles and 80,645 pages.

Only a fraction of the total number of Tripiṭaka scriptures have yet to be translated from the Chinese into English. To allow the many peoples of the world come to know the teachings of the Buddha, the late Rev. Dr. Numata believed that an English translation of the Tripiṭaka was an essential step.

To realize this goal, in 1986 Rev. Dr. Numata established the BDK English Tripiṭaka Project in Berkeley, California to facilitate this effort, which includes Buddhist scholars from throughout the world to assist in undertaking this translation project. In 2015 operations moved to its present location, some ten miles to the east to Moraga, California.

For the First Series of this project, which may take over a hundred of years to complete, BDK has selected 139 of the Tripiṭaka’s texts which will be published in 108 volumes. Beautifully bound volumes of the translations may be purchased. For selected titles, on-line electronic file versions (PDFs) of published works are available for download and viewing.