Theravāda is the only surviving school of the early Buddhist traditions, preserved in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. It takes the Pali canon as its scripture and Buddhaghosa’s commentaries as its authority, and holds up the arahant as the ideal. In the twentieth century its meditation traditions spread worldwide.
Theravāda
“The teaching of the elders”: the form of Buddhism of Sri Lanka and South-East Asia, based on the Pali canon.
Also: Theravada