Part I: From Memory to Manuscript—The Birth of Buddhist Scripture
Before the Buddha's teachings became books, they lived in human breath and communal memory. For centuries, the Dharma survived through oral transmission alone—chanted, memorized, and passed down through generations of devoted practitioners. This section explores the earliest foundations of Buddhist textual culture: the sophisticated techniques of oral preservation, the contested councils that first attempted to standardize the teachings, the crisis that forced communities to commit sacred words to palm leaves, and the evolving monastic rules that shaped daily practice. These foundations reveal not a single divine text descending from enlightenment, but a living tradition shaped by real communities navigating the challenges of preserving wisdom across time, geography, and cultural change.