Three Worlds According to King Ruang:
Three Worlds According to King Ruang: Thai Buddhist Cosmology. Translated, with Introduction and Notes, by Frank E. Reynolds and Mani B. Reynolds. Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press. Motilal Banarsidass, 1982, 383 pages.
In translating the Three Worlds According to King Ruang the authors have taken upon themselves a most difficult task. The text, known in Thai as Trai Phum Phra Ruang, is long and complex, and much of the language is archaic. Complicating the situation, the extant manuscripts often disagree, and there are passages which are evidently corrupt. Nevertheless, the text is a most important one, that should be available in English translation. We are most fortunate that this publication, the fourth in the Berkeley Buddhist Studies Series, brings us a fine translation, accompanied by clear and informative explanatory material.
The Three Worlds According to King Ruang, generally attributed to Phya Lithai of the Kingdom of Sukhothai, is a rich and vivid description of the cosmos as it was understood by the royal author. The text was composed as a sermon, and it covered a broad range of topics. For example, the ways in which different kinds of beings come to be born and finally die are spelled out in detail. Heavens and hells are also described in specific detail, as are the acts by which a creature earns a place of residence in one or another of them. All of the many realms which together make up the cosmos are also described, along with the inhabitants of each of those realms. The sermom also includes a concise and specific description of the path to perfèction mapped out for humanity by the Buddha. All of this, and much more that is to be fOund in the Trai Phum Phra Ruang, have made the text one of great importance in the development of Thai religious thought, and it has served as an important source of literary and artistic inspiration. It would be difficult to understate the significance of the text, or the usefulness of a translation of it for those interested in Thai or Theravada Buddhist studies.
In this translation, introductory material serves to place the text in perspective. A brief description of what is known about Phya Lithai is presented first, followed by some introduction to early Thai kingship. The basic trends in the development of traditional Theraväda cosmology are sketched out for the reader, as are the trends of development within the Thai tradition itself, demonstrating a two-fold process of preservation and innovation which is at work in the text.
The structure and content of the Traz Phum Phra Ruang are then described in some detail. Finally, the authors present a historv of the text. Here they discuss briefly the difficulties involved in translating a work of this type, and the reasons which led them to adopt their translation strategies, with maximum "clarity, readabilitv and general usefulness of the English text" as the goal. This goal has certainly been achieved.
The text itself reads easily and as does the explanatory material that has been provided. The introduction is always informative and clear, and care is taken to explain each term that might be unfamiliar to the general reader. This is true throughout the translation as well, in which extensive footnotes are used in a variety of ways. They are used, for example, to clarify references, to point out passages in which the Trai Phum Phra Ruang differs significantly from the
older source material used bv the royal author of the sermon, and to clarify and comment on sections in which the manuscripts have conflicting readings. Useful charts and diagrams are also provided, and a glossary of selected terms gives the original wording on which the English version is based. For each glossary entry' the source language of the original term, Päli, Sanskrit or Thai, is also given.
Along with the quality of the translation, and of the accompanying explanatory' material, the volume also has beautiful illustrations to recommend it. Ten color illustrations from a reproduction of the manuscript commissioned in the 18th century by King Taksin of Thonburi are included here, as are three color illustrations painted by Thawan Dachanee, a modern Thai artist who works on Buddhist themes.
Robert j. Bickner
