The Foundations of Buddhism

10

Evolving Traditions of Buddhism

South, East, North, and West

Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka and South-East Asia:

Southern Buddhism

Buddhism arrived in Sri Lanka in the third century BeE; for

the next thousand years or so Sri Lanka was a great centre of

Buddhist learning. The early spread and history of Buddhism

in South-East Asia, on the other hand, is complex. While the

Theravada Buddhism· of the Sri Lanka and South-East Asia

should not be viewed as a uniform and monolithic whole, it does

have a certain unity exemplified by the persistence of one main

monastic Vinaya lineage and the authority of the Pali canon and

its commentaries, inherited from the Mahavihara of ancient

Anuradhapura. But this is no simple orthodoxy; a variety of inter-

pretations and practices have probably always existed and per-

sist down to modern times. Too often the models and norms for

religious history employed by modern scholarship revolve around

concepts of schism, heresy, orthodoxy, sect, and denomination,

derived from the history of Christianity. These concepts are not

always appropriate, and obscure the religious history of Buddhism

rather than shed light upon it.

Sri Lanka

The initial formative phase of Theravada Buddhism was com-

pleted by woo CE. This is not to say that there are no subsequent

developments or changes, but that Theravada Buddhism largely

defines itself by reference to traditions and teachings that were
established between the fifth and tenth centuries in Sri Lanka;
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries should also be seen as a
significant creative period.