Pāli is the original language of the most authentic Buddhist Canonical scriptures which was also the vernacular of northeastern part of India where the Buddha spent most of his lifetime in the 6th century BC. The Buddha’s teachings that were introduced to Sri Lanka in the 3rd century BC was recorded in Pāli in the 1st century AD. Since then, Pāli has been vastly used in the Theravada Buddhist countries to compose Commentaries, sub commentaries and many other compendiums on Buddhism and Buddhism related subjects. Today, though there are three main Buddhist traditions in the world as Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayāna, the canonical texts of the Theravada tradition written in Pāli have been unanimously accepted as the most reliable and authentic records of the Buddha’s teachings. Therefore, after these texts were translated into English by western scholars in the nineteenth century, the interest in Buddhism written in Pāli started to increase overwhelmingly. Since a few decades, the interest in Buddhism has been significantly rising particularly in Europe and America. In addition to the philosophy of Buddhism, the Buddhist teachings on meditation, mindfulness and psychology have gained greater popularity and attraction even among many nonBuddhist communities. As a result, we witness a growing interest in learning Pāli to understand the original words of the Buddha. Some decades before, Pāli was considered a dying language. However, during the last few years alone, not only Buddhist institutions but also world-recognized non-Buddhist universities have introduced Pāli academic programmes leading to Diplomas, graduate as well as postgraduate Degrees. From the Anuradhapura period, Sri Lanka has been identified and honoured by the world as the best seat of Pāli and Theravada Buddhist studies. Therefore, this Honours Degree programme in Pāli is designed to fulfil not only the requirement of local students but also the foreign students who wish to master in Pāli and Buddhist studies.