The Buddhist Religion: A Historical Introduction

7

Buddhism in Sri Lanka

and Southeast Asia

7.1 ORTHODOXY AND SYNCRETISM,

H.ISTORY AND STRUCTURE

A

s cultural areas, Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia are vastly different.

What they have in common is that, beginning from the eleventh cen-

tury, Buddhists in Sri Lanka have worked together with those on

mainland Southeast Asia to maintain Theravada as their dominant religious

tradition. Prior to then, Theravada had been merely one among many forms

ofBuddhism-including Sanskrit Hinayana, Mahayana, and Tantrism-prac-

ticed in this region along with Hinduism and indigenous animist cults. Al-

though Theravada is essentially a conservative tradition, its rise to prominence

involved adopting many elements from the other traditions in its environ-

ment. This borrowing shaped even what eventually developed as Theravadin

orthodoxy.

Buddhists in this region, however, have not been unaware of this process

of syncretism, nor have they all resigned themselves to it. Those with little

sense ofhistory have tended to accept the situation and see no problem with

it. Those with a historical sense have tended to reject many if not all of the

syncretic elements and have tried to recover and put into practice what they

view as the pure orthodox tradition. The history of Theravada-the only ele-

ment in the syncretic mix that has not lost its living history-is the story of

this quest for purity.

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