Tradition

Theravāda

The “Way of the Elders”, the Buddhism of Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, based on the Pali canon.

Also called Theravada, the Way of the Elders

A tradition of Buddhism

Introduction

Theravāda, “the Way of the Elders”, is the Buddhism of Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. It is the only surviving tradition of the early schools, and it preserves the Pali canon, the Tipiṭaka or “three baskets” of monastic discipline, discourses and Abhidhamma, the most complete early collection of the Buddha’s teaching in an Indian language.

Theravāda teaching centres on the Four Noble Truths, the three marks of existence, and the eightfold path, organized as the three trainings of ethics, concentration and wisdom. Its traditional ideal is the arahant, who has extinguished craving and will not be reborn. Practice combines calm (samatha), the stilling of the mind, with insight (vipassanā) into impermanence, suffering and non-self.

The monastic community, ordained under the ancient code of discipline, is the heart of the tradition, supported by lay followers who make merit through generosity and observe the precepts. Buddhaghosa’s fifth-century commentaries fixed the standard interpretation of the canon.

History

Historical

According to the Sri Lankan chronicles, Buddhism was brought to the island in the third century BCE by Mahinda, a son of the emperor Aśoka. The canon, transmitted orally, was written down in Sri Lanka around the first century BCE. In the fifth century CE Buddhaghosa, at the Mahāvihāra of Anurādhapura, composed the Visuddhimagga and rendered the commentaries into Pali.

From the eleventh century, Theravāda became the dominant Buddhism of the kingdoms of Burma, and later of Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, often through royal reforms that brought monastic lineages from Sri Lanka. Monks and kings maintained a close relation, with the king as protector of the Saṅgha.

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Burmese teachers such as Ledi Sayadaw and Mahasi Sayadaw taught insight meditation to lay people on a large scale, and the forest tradition of Thailand renewed the ideal of meditative monasticism. Western scholars of the Pali Text Society, founded in 1881 by T. W. Rhys Davids, edited and translated the canon, and the “insight meditation” movement carried Theravāda practice to the West.

3rd c. BCEBuddhism reaches Sri Lanka, traditionally with Mahinda
c. 1st c. BCEThe Pali canon is written down
5th c.Buddhaghosa’s Visuddhimagga and commentaries
11th c.Theravāda becomes the Buddhism of the Burmese kingdom of Pagan
1881T. W. Rhys Davids founds the Pali Text Society
20th c.Insight meditation taught to lay people in Burma and beyond

Major thinkers

Key concepts

Important texts

Convergence and divergence

Resemblance and difference, given equal room. Each note is marked with the kind of statement it makes.

Areas of convergence

Contemplation, with Christian Mysticism
Scholarship
Theravāda monastic life, with its rule, its renunciation and its meditative discipline, has often been compared with Christian monasticism.

Areas of divergence

Bodhisattva, with Mahāyāna
Scholarship
Theravāda holds the arahant as the goal of practice; the Mahāyāna holds that every practitioner should aim at full buddhahood as a bodhisattva, for the sake of all beings.
Ātman, with Yoga
Scholarship
Theravāda and Yoga describe similar stages of meditative absorption, but Theravāda insight is into non-self, where Yoga seeks the isolation of an eternal conscious self.

Cite this entry

Chicago (bibliography): “Theravāda.” Tradition. The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society. Last modified November 7, 2026. https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/traditions/theravada.
Chicago (note): “Theravāda,” tradition, The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, last modified November 7, 2026, https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/traditions/theravada.
MLA: “Theravāda.” The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, 7 Nov. 2026, www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/traditions/theravada.
BibTeX: @misc{traditions-theravada, title = {{Theravāda}}, howpublished = {The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society}, note = {Tradition. Last modified November 7, 2026}, year = {2026}, url = {https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/traditions/theravada} }