Phutathat (Buddhadasa Bhikkhu), whose innovative
teaching and example continued to inspire the lead-
ing Buddhist reformist voices in the country, even af-
ter his death in 1993. Although regarded primarily as
an outstanding Pali scholar, Phra Thammapidok
(Dhammapitaka), along with Phutathat, have influ-
enced numerous Buddhist social activists including
Sulak Sivaraksa, a major figure in the international en-
gaged Buddhist movement. Sulak’s NGOs (non-
governmental organizations) include the International
Network of Engaged Buddhists (INEB). The issues ad-
dressed by INEB range from assisting democracy ac-
tivists persecuted by Myanmar’s repressive military
dictatorship to supporting the prominent Thai Bud-
dhist academic, Chatsumarn Kabilsingh, who resigned
her position in the philosophy department at Tham-
masat University to ordain in Sri Lanka as Samaneri
Dhammanan with the hope of establishing an order of
nuns in Thailand.
The international engaged Buddhist movement that
includes reformers like Sulak advocates the integration
of inner-personal and outer-social transformation.
Progressive Thai Buddhists believe that the interna-
tional problems of global poverty, economic exploita-
tion, and violence require the practice of sustained
awareness that lies at the heart of true compassion. Al-
though awareness is an ancient Buddhist practice, its
application to a Buddhist social ethic is an innovation
that, while running the risk of diminishing its original
intent, holds out the promise that the tradition will
maintain its relevance to the dramatic dislocations of
the postmodern world.
See also:Amulets and Talismans; Engaged Buddhism;
Merit and Merit-Making; Relics and Relics Cults;
Thai, Buddhist Literature in
Bibliography
Bizot, François. Le Chemin de Lanka. Paris: École Française
d’Extreme-Orient, 1992.
Bizot, François. Le Bouddhisme des Thais. Bangkok, Thailand:
Editions des Cahiers de France, 1993.
Buddhadasa Bhikkhu. Me and Mine: Selected Essays of Bhikkhu
Buddhadasa, ed. Donald K. Swearer. Albany: State Univer-
sity of New York Press, 1989.
Crosby, Kate. “Tantric Theravada: A Bibliographic Essay on the
Writings of François Bizot and Others on the Yogavacara
Tradition.” Contemporary Buddhism: An Interdisciplinary
Journal1, no. 2 (November 2000): 141–198.
Ishii Yoneo. San ̇gha, State, and Society: Thai Buddhism in His-
tory, tr. Peter Hawkes. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press,
1986.
Jackson, Peter. Buddhism, Legitimation, and Conflict: The Polit-
ical Functions of Urban Thai Buddhism. Singapore: Institute
of Southeast Asian Studies, 1989.
Keyes, Charles. “Buddhist Politics and Their Revolutionary Ori-
gins in Thailand.” International Political Science Review10,
no. 2 (1989): 121–142.
Muecke, Marjorie A. “Mother Sold Food, Daughter Sells Her
Body: The Cultural Continuity of Prostitution.” Social Sci-
ence Medicine35, no. 7 (1992): 891–901.
Ratanapañña Thera. The Sheaf of Garlands of the Epochs of the
Conqueror(Jinakalamalipakaranam), tr. N. A. Jayawick-
rama. London: Luzac, 1968.
Reynolds, Frank E., and Reynolds, Mani B. Three Worlds Ac-
cording to King Ruang: A Thai Buddhist Cosmology. Berke-
ley, CA: Asian Humanities Press, 1982.
Swearer, Donald K. The Buddhist World of Southeast Asia. Al-
bany: State University of New York Press, 1995.
Tambiah, Stanley J. World Conqueror, World Renouncer: A
Study of Buddhism and Polity in Thailand against a Histor-
ical Background. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University
Press, 1976.DONALDK. SWEARERTHERAVADATheravada is the dominant form of Buddhism in Cam-
bodia, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), Sri Lanka, and Thai-
land. It remains a central component of the Buddhism
of Vietnam, even after its formal unification with MA-
HAYANAforms in the 1960s. The tradition is followed
by the Baruas, Chakma, and Magh ethnic groups in
Bangladesh, and the Shans of southern China. Histor-
ically, the Theravada school was also important in
South India, and had a wider presence in South and
Southeast Asia more generally, including Indonesia. In
the modern period, Theravada has spread worldwide
through diaspora and mission. The school has been in-
strumental in the Buddhist revival in India and has be-
gun to replace traditional Newari Buddhism in the
Kathmandu valley of Nepal. Missionary monks world-
wide serve both diasporic and convert Buddhists, of-
ten as separate congregations. In the two relatively
recent phenomena of Western convert and ENGAGED
BUDDHISM, Theravada is likely to be universalized
rather than culturally specific, and to be mixed or at
least in dialogue with other forms of Buddhism andTHERAVADA