Pāli Canon
![Standard edition of the Thai Pali Canon](/Images/godic/202502/01/Tipitaka14535.jpg")
![](/Images/godic/202502/01/Gal_Viharaya_024536.jpg")
![In pre-modern times the Pali Canon was not published in book form, but written on thin slices of wood (Palm-leaf manuscript or Bamboo). The leaves are kept on top of each other by thin sticks and the scripture is covered in cloth and kept in a box.](/Images/godic/202502/01/Tipitaka_scripture4536.jpg")
![Burmese-Pali manuscript copy of the Buddhist text Mahaniddesa, showing three different types of Burmese script, (top) medium square, (centre) round and (bottom) outline round in red lacquer from the inside of one of the gilded covers](/Images/godic/202502/01/Burmese-Pali_Manuscript._Wellcome_L00265474536.jpg")
The Pāli Canon (Pali: Tipitaka) is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravadan Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language. It is the first known and most complete extant early Buddhist canon.
It was composed in North India, and preserved orally until it was committed to writing during the Fourth Buddhist Council in Sri Lanka in 29 BCE, approximately 454 years after the death of Gautama Buddha.