The arrival of Theravada Buddhism in Thailand

No one knows exactly, but the most accurate estimates assume that between 90 and 93% of the Thai population are Buddhists and more specifically practice Theravada Buddhism. This immediately makes Thailand, albeit after the People's Republic of China, the largest Buddhist nation in the world.

Today, Theravada Buddhism in Thailand is known as “Lankavamsa”. This, according to most historians and anthropologists, has to do with the fact that more than 700 years ago Ramkhamhaeng, the ruler of Sukhothai, the leading Sri Lankan monks who settled in Nakhorn Si Thammarat - in the south of what is now Thailand - invited to teach Sri Lankan Buddhism in Sukhothai. Hence the birth of Lankanvamsa (Langka tradition) in Thailand.

To explain the presence of these Sri Lankan monks in Thailand, however, we have to take a step further into the past. After the death of the Buddha, a number of councils were held in which not only the teachings and sayings of the Buddha were recorded, but also the disciplinary rules for the 'sangha', the community, bundled in the 'vinaya'. At the third council, which took place in Pataliputra under the impulse of Emperor Asokha Priyadarshin in 245 BC, it was decided to send missionaries to spread the 'Dharma', the teachings of Buddha. Monks left for the Dekan Plateau, Kashmir, Sri Lanka and the Far East, among other places. One of Ashoka's edicts indicates that envoys with the teachings were not only sent to the Greek monarchs and Macedonia, but also to Egypt, Syria, Libya and the mystical Suvarnabhumi, a mythical principality in Southeast Asia… Burmese, Cambodians and Thai claim today - however without credible historical evidence - this Suvarnabhumi because that would concretely mean that their respective nation belonged to the earliest Buddhist countries in the world….

However, it may not have been until the Mon kingdom of Dvaravati (6^e all 11^e century) in what is today Central Thailand that traces can be found that point to Buddhism. Nakhorn Si Thammarat, home to the Sri Lankan monks invited by Ramkhamhaeng, was an important settlement that was part of Indonesia's Srivijaya Empire (ca. 630-1377) that controlled much of what is now southern Thailand.

In the aftermath of the Third Buddhist Council, various schools of 'nikaya' or denominations emerged, each compiling their own canon of texts to demonstrate the authenticity and credibility of their denomination. According to traditions, no fewer than 18 different tendencies emerged during that period; 11 'conservative' and 7 'progressive'. The only school or branch that has survived to this day is Theravada Buddhism, called 'Sthaviravada' in Sanskrit which means 'way of the elderly'. This school, which preached an ascetic and atheistic doctrine of salvation, established the canon in Pali in Sri Lanka in the first century of our era. With that, this so-called 'southern Buddhism' became the representation of the old, orthodox and going back to the source Buddhism. Through the missionary work of the Sri Lankan monks, Theravada Buddhism gained wide acceptance in what are today the states of Myanar (Burma), Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.

The Theravada teachings are based on the oldest surviving foundation of Buddhism, being the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Venerable Path. The four Noble Truths are briefly summarized:

1. There is suffering (Dhukka) in the broadest sense of the word.
2. Suffering has a cause.
3. An end to suffering is possible.
4. The end of suffering can be achieved by walking the Venerable Path.

The Eightfold Venerable Path consists of the following steps

• Right seeing (Understanding what suffering – Dukkha – means and how it can end)
• Right intention (also called right motivation or right thoughts. You can develop a right intention through the practice of meditation, among other things)
• Right intention (having the right motivation)
• Speak correctly (no lies, gossip or slander)
• Acting right (not stealing, cheating, sexual misconduct, etc.)
• Right livelihood (acting ethically and morally)
• Right effort (avoid tension and spasms in thinking and doing)
• Right attention/attention/meditation (mindfulness)
• Correct concentration (for which you create the conditions yourself).

Within Theravada Buddhism a number of tendencies arose that have not survived the test of time, but which did offer an interesting insight into the philosophical elasticity of Theravada Buddhism. For example, the Sarvastivadin school held that all things happen simultaneously in the present, past, and future. The Buddha was absolutely not a supernatural being for them and the 'arhat' the monks who strive for their enlightenment could – nothing human was foreign to them – have a regression or relapse. The Dharmaguptaka school was the most influential Buddhist school on the historic Silk Road at the beginning of our era. The main point of belief of this school was that the Buddha was outside and above the 'sangha', the religious community, so that only gifts to the Buddha and not to the community made sense. Another strand, the Samkrantika, stated that at death, a fine substance leaves the dying person and passes on to the next incarnation. This statement opened the door ajar for the existence of such a thing as a soul, contrary to what the Buddha had taught…

As a reaction to what is considered rather elitist and conservative Theravada Buddhism, the 1^e century a popular mass movement that quickly, thanks to their numerical preponderance, came to call itself the Mahayana 'The Great Wheel' while Theravada Buddhism was described somewhat scornfully as 'Hinayana' or the 'Little Vehicle'. The rapidly gaining popularity of Mahayana opposed the Theravada monks because they were too preoccupied with themselves and the attainment of their individual enlightenment…Mahayana advocated a more social, folksy interpretation of Buddhism in which the historical Buddha was in fact only visible associated with earthly existence. He was a 'bodhisattva', a being destined to attain enlightenment, but who pursued this enlightenment not for his own personal interests but for the salvation of others. The historical Buddha was already a bodhisattva in his past lives and also in his historical existence up to the moment that he attained enlightenment. Thus, contrary to what the Theravada creed presupposes, he became a transcendent, deified figure who is of and for all time…..

King Ramkhamhaeng not only invited Theravada monks to his court but he built monasteries for them and then sent more monks to Sri Lanka to study. This overt royal support increased Theravada's prestige and influence in Thailand. During Ramkhamhaeng's reign, the study of Pali Buddhist texts was promoted and stupas were built here and there, reflecting the Sri Lankan architectural influence. One of these is the still existing Wat Chang Lom that can be admired in the Sukhothai Historical Park. Thai travelers to Sri Lanka also brought back the root of a bodhi tree, under which, according to tradition, the Buddha attained enlightenment, beginning the Thai tradition of worshiping bodhi trees. Buddha statues in the Sukhothai style also clearly reflected the influence of Sri Lankan art styles in the early decades before the artists in Sukhothai started to develop their own typical iconography.

Bodhi tree

It was also under Ramkhamhaeng's reign that the position of 'sangharaja' – the 'leader' of the Buddhist monastic community – was created and charged with the management of the 'sangha', the orders of monks and nuns. Other monks strengthened the state apparatus when the monarch granted them lower administrative functions. Later Sukhothai kings would continue this policy. This was no coincidence, because in the meantime these monarchs extracted the legitimacy of their kingship from the royal concept as it existed within the Theravadic tradition. This was based on the idea that the Buddhist king ruled in accordance with the 'dharma' (the universal law and the teaching of the Buddha which refers to it), specifically the ten royal virtues mentioned in the 'Aggañña Sutta'; including alms-giving, morality, generosity, gentleness, no anger and no harm.

Mahathammaracha I, who held sway over Sukhothai from 1346 to 1368, was perhaps one of the most important promoters of Theravada Buddhism in the region. He was known far and wide as a great scholar and patron of Buddhism, even becoming a monk for a brief period of four months, perhaps the first Thai monarch to do so. An important treatise on Buddhist cosmology, the 'Tribhumikatha' or 'Trai Phum Phra Ruang' (The Three Worlds According to King Ruang), has been attributed to him and is one of the oldest traditional works of Thai literature.