At the Buddha’s death, the monastic community was divided into different groups. Reverence for the teacher and his sermons led his followers to preserve and pass on his words.

Around the 4th century BCE, the groups began to develop their canonical collections orally; they began to put them in writing around the 1st century BCE. For centuries, Buddhist communities composed, copied and translated numerous texts that, according to tradition, were teachings of the Buddha.

In the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, Buddhist manuscripts were usually written on strips of dried palm leaf cut to the same size. Letters were inscribed using a metal burin and, after, filled with black ink. The leaves were then stacked, and one or two holes were made in them to bind them with string, like a seam or suture (a word etymologically related to sutra or speech) in the text. Finally, they were placed between two pieces of wood the same size as the leaves.

In regions where palm leaves were scarce, birch bark was cut into strips to make pages or a roll. With the rolls, the end was left visible to make it easier to identify the content of the text. Occasionally, paper, cloth, silk, vellum or sheets of metal were used. Around the 7th century CE, with the invention in China of woodblock printing, editions of the texts made with woodcuts proliferated in East Asia.

Some manuscripts were illuminated with scenes from the life of the Buddha, of other Buddhist figures or decorative motifs. The texts were copied not only to preserve the teachings, but as meditative practice, a form of improvement and making merit. The Buddhist scriptures were considered incarnations of the word of the Buddha (the Dharma) and, therefore, sacred objects. In addition to their ritual function, derived from their nature as relics, the scriptures were tools of great pedagogical value in monastic instruction.