many beliefs with its parent religion Hinduism,
most particularly the belief in liberation from the
cycle of births, the cosmology of Hinduism, and
the four major eras or YUGAs. Many of the laity
fuse Hindu belief and ritual with Buddhist reli-
gion. Several Hindu temples exist in Thailand and
most of the major deities are recognized. There
are even temples and PUJAS (worship services)
dedicated to the creator god BRAHMA alone, a rarity
in India itself.
Further reading: Eliezer B. Ayal, ed., The Study of Thai-
land: Analysis of Knowledge, Approaches, and Prospects
in Anthropology, Art History, Economics, History, and
Political Science (Athens: Ohio Center for International
Studies, South East Asia Program, 1978); John M.
Cadet, The Ramakien: The Thai Epic: Illustrated with the
Bas-Reliefs of Wat Phra Jetubon (Tokyo: Kodansha Inter-
national, 1971); Georges Coedès, The Indianized States
of Southeast Asia. Edited by Walter F. Vella translated
by Susan Brown Cowing (Honolulu: East-West Center
Press, 1968); Rajiv Malik, “Thailand Hinduism,” Hin-
duism Today (July–August–September 2003); Stanley
J. O’Conner, Hindu Gods of Peninsular Siam (Ascona,
Switzerland: Artibus Asiae, 1972).
Theosophical Society (est. 1875)
The Theosophical Society was founded in 1875
in New York City by Helena Petrovna BLAVATSKY,
Henry Steel Olcott, and William Q. Judge. The
founders sought to promote the study of insights
from various world religions, investigate spiritu-
alist and other occult phenomena, and foster the
brotherhood of all humankind. Olcott became
the first president (1875–1907), although the
writings and teachings of Blavatsky became syn-
onymous with the teachings of the society. The
society accepted her self-description as a disciple
of highly evolved beings, mahatmas, who had
instructed her in the ancient wisdom, the secret
doctrine, the wisdom religion, or Theosophy. She
claimed to have contacted an occult brotherhood
of these mahatmas in her travels in the Far East,
particularly in Tibet. Their perennial philosophy
became the basis of her writings.
Although Theosophy has no official dogma,
it sees itself as a body of truths that are the basis
of all valid religions. It is not a religion per se,
but rather a restatement of the essence of religion
itself. The three stated objectives of the society
are (1) to form a nucleus of the Universal Broth-
erhood of Humanity without distinction of race,
creed, sex, caste, or color; (2) to encourage the
study of comparative religion, philosophy, and
science; and (3) to investigate unexplained laws of
nature and the powers latent in humans.
To Theosophists, the universe is a manifesta-
tion of one eternal, infinite reality, the divine,
which underlies and pervades everything. Each
person is a spark of the divine, a microcosm of
the macrocosm, born in order to evolve from
latent divinity to perfection. Through many incar-
nations, a soul entity or monad of the divine
becomes perfect enough to be free from the cycle
of birth and death.
Blavatsky expounded a cosmological scheme
and description of the human body and soul,
involving levels and hierarchies that express rela-
tionships among humanity, the angelic realms,
and ultimately, the divine. Theosophical ideas are
largely drawn from the cosmological and psycho-
logical teachings of Hinduism and Buddhism and
are portrayed in an amalgam of Hindu and Bud-
dhist terminology.
In 1879 Blavatsky and Olcott settled in India;
in 1882 they established Theosophical Society
headquarters at Adyar, near Madras (Chennai).
In 1895, Judge, who headed the American sec-
tion, severed its relations with the British and
Indian branches. In 1896 Judge died and was suc-
ceeded by Katherine A. TINGLEY, who moved the
American section’s headquarters to Point Loma
(San Diego), California. Further schisms of the
Theosophical Society in America produced the
Temple of the People (from the Syracuse, New
York, branch) and the Theosophical Society of
New York.K 444 Theosophical Society