Payutto published the first edition of Buddhadhamma,
a summary of major Buddhist principles, focusing es-
pecially on Buddhist notions of causality and interde-
pendence. This major work has been expanded to over
one thousand pages. And, not to be overlooked, mod-
ern Thai fiction itself is often a blend of romantic love,
heroism, the life of the Buddha, and references to
jatakatales. While globalization refashions traditional
belief, the Thai creative imagination continues to re-
spond to modernity with its own distinctive synthesis
of the past and present.
See also:Southeast Asia, Buddhist Art in; Thailand
Bibliography
Bofman, Theodora Helene. The Poetics of the Ramakian.
DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Center for South-
east Asian Studies, 1984.
Chamberlain, James F., ed. The Ramkhamhaeng Controversy:
Selected Papers.Bangkok, Thailand: Siam Society, 1991.
Olson, Grant A. “Thai Cremation Volumes: A Brief History of
a Unique Genre of Literature.” Asian Folklore Studies 51
(1992): 279–294.
Payutto, Prayudh. Buddhadhamma: Natural Laws and Values
for Life,tr. Grant A. Olson. Albany: State University of New
York Press, 1995.
Reynolds, Frank E., and Reynolds, Mani B., trans. Three Worlds
According to King Ruang: A Thai Cosmology.Berkeley, CA:
Asian Humanities Press, 1982.
Rutin, Mattani Mojdara. Modern Thai Literature: The Process of
Modernization and the Transformation of Values.Bangkok,
Thailand: Thammasat University Press, 1988.
GRANTA. OLSONTHAILAND
The historical origins of Buddhism in the part of main-
land Southeast Asia known today as Thailand are ob-
scure. According to popular Thai tradition, Buddhism
was propagated in the region south of present-day
Bangkok by the monks Sona and Uttara, who were sent
to Suvannabhumi (the golden land) by the Mauryan
king AS ́OKAin the third century B.C.E. According to
this view, from these beginnings Buddhism of a THER-
AVADApersuasion has dominated the country. Ar-
chaeological evidence confirms a flourishing Buddhist
culture among the Mon at Dvaravatin the region of
Nakon Pathom thirty miles southwest of Bangkok as
early as the fourth century C.E., but historical evidence
fails to corroborate the legend of As ́oka’s emissaries.
Furthermore, while both archaeological and textual ev-
idence suggest a strong Pali Theravada presence among
the Mon states in Thailand and lower Burma (Myan-
mar), the Buddhist ubiety in the region was marked by
diversity rather than uniformity. Indeed, prior to the
establishment of the major Tai states of SUKHOTHAI
and Chiang Mai in the thirteenth century, Buddhism
in Thailand can only be characterized as eclectic. As
part of the Indian cultural influence into “greater
India,” elements of MAHAYANA, TANTRA, and MAIN-
STREAMBUDDHIST SCHOOLSentered different regions
of Thailand through the Mon, the expansion of the
Sumatran-based S ́rivijaya kingdom into the southern
peninsula, and the growing dominance of the Khmer
empire in the west. These diverse Buddhist expres-
sions, in turn, competed with Brahmanism, Hinduism,
and autochthonous animisms. Rather than an orga-
nized sectarian lineage, the early religious amalgam in
Thailand and other parts of Southeast Asia might be
more accurately described as a syncretic collage of
miraculous relics and charismatic monks, Hindu
dharmas ́astra, Brahmanic deities, Mahayana buddhas,
tantric practices, and Sanskrit Sarvastivadin and Pali
Theravada traditions.Syncretism and tantric Theravada
François Bizot describes the eclectic nature of Bud-
dhism in premodern Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia as
a congruence of Vedic Brahmanism, tantrism, and a
pre-Aryan Austro-Asiatic cult of guardian spirits and
protective divinities. Interacting with Mon Theravada
beliefs and practices, and possibly influenced by the
Mulasarvastivadins, it resulted in what Bizot has char-
acterized as “Tantric Theravada,” identified with a
mystical tradition known as Yogavacara (practitioner
of the spiritual discipline). The features of this tantric
Theravada, at odds with the stereotypical view of clas-
sical Theravada, include identifying one’s body with
the qualities of the Buddha; the use of esoteric sylla-
bles and words (DHARANI, MANTRA, yantra) to repre-
sent the identity of microcosm and macrocosm; the
dharmic potency of sounds and letters; and esoteric
initiation for the realization of both soteriological and
mundane ends (Crosby).
By the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Tai migra-
tions from southwest China into Thailand resulted in
the establishment of several petty kingdoms, most no-
tably Chiang Mai under King Mangrai (r. 1292–1317)
and Sukhothai under King Ramkhamhaeng (r. ca.THAILAND