Buddhist Publication Society
The Buddhist Publication Society (BPS), founded in Sri Lanka in 1958, is an approved charity dedicated to making known the teaching of the Buddha. BPS publications represent the standpoint of Theravada Buddhism, the oldest living Buddhist tradition of which the Pali Canon gives the most authentic account of what the historical Buddha himself actually taught. In a span of four-and-a-half decades the BPS has become a major Buddhist publisher with hundreds of titles and a field of distribution extending to ninety countries.
The BPS is today one of the world's major publishers of literature on Buddhism, but its beginnings were small and simple and its eventual course of development totally unexpected by its founders. The birth of the Society goes back to late 1957, when Mr. A.S. Karunaratna, a devout Buddhist gentleman of Kandy, undertook to print a small booklet on Buddhism in English for free distribution in memory of a deceased relative. While the booklet was still in the press the idea occurred to him to start a series of such publications-small books paperbound and chiefly for distribution abroad. He discussed the project with a friend, Mr. Richard Abeyasekera, and with the German-born Buddhist monk Ven. Nyanaponika Thera. They received the suggestion enthusiastically, and without further formalities the new project was launched.