the history of Buddhist monasticism and, second, to forms
of Buddhist religious, political, and social life in various Bud-
dhist countries. Although these two aspects of Therava ̄da
Buddhism must be distinguished, they overlap and interact
in various ways at different points in Therava ̄da history. In
the present article, the specifically monastic aspects will re-
ceive priority, but reference will be made to the civilizational
dimension as well.
What is the best way to identify the school and the relat-
ed orientations that should appropriately be considered
under the Therava ̄da rubric? This is a very difficult question,
and there is no answer that proves appropriate in all circum-
stances. For our purposes, however, the following character-
ization may be helpful. The Therava ̄da school and orienta-
tions within Buddhist monasticism are those that have been
self-consciously identified with the “Way of the Elders”
(Skt., Sthavirava ̄da; Pali, Therava ̄da) and have maintained
Pali as the language in which they have preserved what they
hold to be the authentic teaching of the Buddha. Within the
larger divisions of the Buddhist community, the Therava ̄da
is the sole surviving member of the so-called Eighteen
Schools, the eighteen (by traditional reckoning) nika ̄yas that
together made up what its detractors would come to call
H ̄ınaya ̄na Buddhism, the “lesser vehicle” to salvation. With
the other H ̄ınaya ̄na schools, the Therava ̄da shares a soteriol-
ogy centered around the figure of the arahant (Skt., arhat),
forms of community life strictly regulated by the Vinaya, or
code of monastic conduct, and a canon that rejects the au-
thenticity of the Maha ̄ya ̄na su ̄tras. Therava ̄da remains today,
as it has been for nearly a thousand years, the dominant Bud-
dhist tradition in Sri Lanka (Ceylon), Burma, Thailand,
Laos, and Cambodia.
Once this way of identifying the scholastic expressions
and orientations of Therava ̄da Buddhism has been estab-
lished, the identification of Therava ̄da forms of Buddhist civ-
ilization is much easier. Quite simply, Therava ̄da forms of
Buddhist civilization are those that have been strongly influ-
enced by the Therava ̄da school (including its conceptions
and prescriptions relevant to society as a whole as well as to
the monastic community) and heavily supported by
Therava ̄da monks.
The recognition of these two dimensions of Therava ̄da
Buddhism, and the specification of very general criteria for
identifying each of them, does not resolve the very serious
problems involved in generating an adequate historical de-
scription. It does, however, establish parameters that will fa-
cilitate the discussion.
ORIGINS AND EARLY DEVELOPMENT. Therava ̄da Buddhism,
like other forms of Buddhism, had its origin in the life of the
early Buddhist community. However, during the earliest
stages of Buddhist development schools had not yet crystal-
lized in any formal sense. Although the claim to represent
the earliest Buddhism is doctrinally important, none of the
schools that developed later can be considered, on the basis
of purely historical scholarship, to be the sole inheritor and
preserver of the original form of Buddhist teaching and prac-
tice.
The first centuries. We know that not longer than 110
years after the death of the Buddha the different emphases
that existed within the earliest community culminated in a
major schism. The school known as the Maha ̄sa ̄m:ghika
(“those of the great assembly”) was more populist in its atti-
tude toward doctrinal matters, disciplinary practices, and
modes of communal organization. By contrast, the
Sthavirava ̄da school was more conservative in its approach
to doctrine and practice and was more hierarchical in its pat-
terns of community life.
Although a Therava ̄da tradition using Pali as its sacred
language probably existed in the earliest days, its differentia-
tion from other related traditions at this point was still quite
nascent. The preferences for versions of the received tradition
according to language or dialect were, as far as we know, not
yet correlated with particular differences in doctrinal or prac-
tical orientation. Nor had the issues that later led to the more
refined scholastic divisions been formulated in any hard and
fast way.
Similarly, it is impossible to identify “Buddhist civiliza-
tion,” much less its Therava ̄da form, during the first centu-
ries of Buddhist history. This is not to say that the Buddhist
tradition generally, and the Therava ̄dins in particular, did
not have civilizational aspirations. From texts dating to this
period, it seems clear that they did. But at this point the op-
portunity for implementation had not yet arisen.
A ́soka and after. By the period of the reign of A ́soka
(third century BCE) the initial division of the Buddhist com-
munity into those of the “Great Assembly” and those of the
“Way of the Elders” had subdivided further. Exactly how
many groups existed, what range of languages or dialects
were used to preserve their Master’s teachings, and how
sharply these groups were divided remains problematic. But
according to Therava ̄da accounts dating from at least the
fourth century CE, A ́soka himself sponsored a council that
clarified the major differences.
According to these later accounts, A ́soka requested that
a Buddhist council be held under the leadership of his mo-
nastic preceptor, a Therava ̄da monk named Moggaliputtatis-
sa. At this council, the Therava ̄dins claim to have bested their
opponents in heated debates on numerous disputed issues.
Not only was the Third Council supposed to have upheld
the Therava ̄dins’ orthodoxy but also to have resulted in the
expulsion of the defeated heretics from the sam:gha (Pali,
sangha), or monastic order. The lack of corroboration from
non-Therava ̄da sources casts doubt on the ecumenical char-
acter of the Third Council; however, most scholars accept
that some sort of council was held.
Further Therava ̄da accounts record that A ́soka spon-
sored Buddhist missions that traveled beyond the frontiers
of his considerable empire. These accounts date the founding
of the Therava ̄da school in Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka toTHERAVA ̄DA 9145