Thanks to the discovery and ongoing publication of the incomplete Sanskrit Dīrgha-āgama manuscript from Gilgit, three different versions of the Collection of Long Discourses are now available for comparative study: the Pali Dīgha-nikāya transmitted within the Theravāda tradition, the just-mentioned Dīrgha-āgama in Sanskrit, identified as Sarvāstivāda or Mūlasarvāstivāda, and the Chinese translation of an Indic Dīrgha-āgama (長阿含經), generally considered to be affiliated with the Dharmaguptakas.

The seminar, “The Chinese Translation of the Dīrgha-āgama (長 阿含經, Taishō 1)”, took place on 18 and 19 October, 2013. It was organised in collaboration with the Chung-Hwa Institute of Buddhist Studies at Dharma Drum Mountain and the Numata Center for Buddhist Studies at Hamburg University. The event was generously funded by the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange. In this volume, we publish most of the papers that were presented and discussed at the seminar, with the chapters – six in total – arranged according to the authors’ names in alphabetical order.