Theravada Buddhism

Theravada Buddhism, the form of Buddhism practiced in Sri Lanka, Burma, Cambodia, and Laos, was the religion of more than 80 percent of the Thai people in the 1980s (Girling, 11).Theravada Buddhists see the Buddha as a human being, not a god. “Buddha” is a title, not a name. These coreligionists included not only the core Thai, but most other Tai speakers, as well as the Khmer, the Mon, and some members of other minorities, among them the Chinese. Relatively few Thai were adherents of Mahayana Buddhism or other religions, including Hinduism, Christianity, Taoism, animism, and Islam. Of these only Islam, largely identified with but not restricted to Southern Thai of Malay origin, was a dominant religion in a specific geographic area (Malalasekera, 60 ).
Theravada Buddhism was the established religion, in that there were formal organizational and ideological links between it and the state. Thai rulers sought, or commanded, the support of the Buddhist clergy or sangha, who usually ac...