The Foundations of Buddhism

Traditions of Buddhism

modernization, and increasing European interest in Buddhist

thought and practice.'^4

South-East Asia

Indian cultural influence began to extend into South-East Asia

from the early centuries of the Christian era, and various forms

of Hinduism and traditions of Buddhism had established them~

selves throughout the region by the end of the first millennium;

Tradition has it that Buddhism first entered the area in the third

century BCE with missions sent' by Asoka, and this is not impos-

sible. Archaeological evidence confirms the existence of a form

of Theravada Buddhism in the Pyu and Mon kingdoms (in what

is now Burma and Thailand) from the fifth century cE; this form

of Theravada may have been introduced from southern India rather

than Sri Lanka.^5 Links between the capital of the Burmese king-

dom at Pagan and Sri Lankan Theravada in the eleventh cen-

tury during the reign of King Anawratha (I 044-77) indicate that

by this period the Theravada lineages of the Sangha were well

established in the region.

The powerful kingdom of the Khmers (centred on Angkor)

dominated much of the region to the south-east (parts of what

is now Thailand and Cambodia) from the eighth to the fifteenth

centuries and here different forms of both Hindu and Buddhist

practice flourished. Inscriptional evidence from the eighth cen~

tury suggests the presence of the Theravada Sangha within the

Khmer cultural sphere, and from the t~elfth century Mon forms

of Theravada became increasingly influential both at court and

among the population as a whole. The Thai kingdoms began to

establish themselves from the thirteenth century, centring first

on Sukhotai in the north (until the fifteenth century), then on

Ayudhya (until the eighteenth century) and finally on Bangkok

(until the present). State support for the Theravada Sangha and

links with Sri Lanka have been a feature of the kingdom.

While Cambodia and Burma became French and British col-

onies respectively, Thailand retained its independence throughout

the colonial period. But modernizing influences were not absent

from the country, and in the nineteenth century Rama IV (I8SI-

68) instigated the,establishment of the reformed Dhammayuttika