Theravada in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia
Ashoka's son Mahinda brings Buddhism to Sri Lanka, where the Pali canon is written down; centuries later Theravada becomes the faith of the kingdoms of Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos.
- Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo — Richard Gombrich, Routledge (1988)
- An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices (2nd ed.) — Peter Harvey, Cambridge University Press (2013)
- The Foundations of Buddhism — Rupert Gethin, Oxford University Press (1998)
- The Story of Buddhism: A Concise Guide to Its History and Teachings — Donald S. Lopez Jr., HarperSanFrancisco (2001)
Sri Lankan chronicles say that around 250 BCE Ashoka’s son, the monk Mahinda, converted King Devanampiya Tissa at Mihintale, and that Ashoka’s daughter Sanghamitta brought a cutting of the Bodhi tree, whose descendant still grows at Anuradhapura. Monks of the Mahavihara monastery there preserved the Pali scriptures, and in the first century BCE, during war and famine, they wrote them down on palm leaves, among the first Buddhist scriptures ever put in writing.
- Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo — Richard Gombrich, Routledge (1988)
- The Foundations of Buddhism — Rupert Gethin, Oxford University Press (1998)
In the fifth century the commentator Buddhaghosa wrote the Path of Purification, still a standard guide. From the eleventh century, reformed Sri Lankan lineages spread to the mainland: King Anawrahta of Pagan in Burma adopted Theravada (traditionally in 1056), and over the next centuries it became the faith of Sukhothai and Ayutthaya in Thailand, of the Khmer after Angkor’s Hindu–Mahayana era, and of Laos.
- An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices (2nd ed.) — Peter Harvey, Cambridge University Press (2013)
- Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo — Richard Gombrich, Routledge (1988)
- The Story of Buddhism: A Concise Guide to Its History and Teachings — Donald S. Lopez Jr., HarperSanFrancisco (2001)
These kingdoms built their legitimacy on supporting and purifying the Sangha, a pattern of “righteous kingship” modelled on Ashoka that still shapes relations between monks and states.
- Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo — Richard Gombrich, Routledge (1988)
- Buddhism Betrayed? Religion, Politics, and Violence in Sri Lanka — Stanley J. Tambiah, University of Chicago Press (1992)
Why it matters today
Theravada is the national religion in all but name of Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, where kings and states have long presented themselves as protectors of the Sangha. That bond between Buddhism and national identity explains much of these countries' culture, and some of their politics.