Theravada

Descent

The name means the doctrine of the elders. Theravada descends from the Sthavira branch, one side of the first division in the sangha, and more particularly from the Vibhajjavada tradition established in Sri Lanka, according to tradition through the mission of Ashoka's son Mahinda in the third century BCE.

It is the only one of the early Indian schools to survive as a living tradition. The others — Sarvastivada, Mahasanghika, Dharmaguptaka and the rest — are known through texts preserved in Chinese and Tibetan translation, through archaeology, and through the polemics of their rivals.

Doctrine and practice

Theravada holds to the Pali Canon and its commentaries, chiefly those associated with Buddhaghosa. Its account of the goal is the arahant, one who has extinguished the defilements and will not be reborn; the bodhisattva career is recognised but treated as the exceptional path of a future Buddha rather than as the standard aspiration.

Monastic practice follows the Pali Vinaya closely, and the relation between monastics and laity — alms, merit-making, temporary ordination in some countries — structures religious life.

Regional history

Theravada became the state-supported tradition in Sri Lanka, and from the eleventh century onward in Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, displacing earlier Mahayana and Brahmanical establishments. Its history in those countries is closely bound to monarchy and, later, to nation-building, and monastic reform movements have repeatedly been instruments of state policy.

The name and the label

The term Hinayana, lesser vehicle, was applied to the earlier schools by Mahayana writers and is pejorative; it should not be used as a synonym for Theravada, both because it is an insult and because it was aimed at a range of schools of which Theravada was not the principal target.

Modern Theravada has also been substantially reshaped by the encounter with colonialism and with Western interest — the vipassana movements, the emphasis on meditation for laypeople, and the presentation of Buddhism as rational and non-ritual are largely developments of the past century and a half.