What is Theravada Buddhism? The teaching of the elders

What is Theravada Buddhism? The meaning of the name, its scriptures, core teachings, monastic and lay life, practice, where it is found and how it differs from Mahayana

Theravada Buddhism is the form of Buddhism followed in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, and it is often described as the oldest surviving school of Buddhism. Its name means 'the teaching of the elders'. It keeps the Buddha's words in the Pali Canon, a large collection of texts in the ancient Indian language Pali, and it has no creator god: the Buddha is honoured as a human teacher who found the way out of suffering and showed it to others. This page explains what the name means, which texts and teachings Theravada Buddhism rests on, how monks and lay people live, what practice looks like from day to day, where the tradition is found, and how it differs from Mahayana.

What does Theravada mean?

Theravāda is a Pali word made of two parts: thera, an elder, meaning a senior monk, and vāda, a teaching or doctrine. Together they mean 'the teaching of the elders'. The elders are the senior disciples who, by tradition, met a few months after the Buddha's final passing to recite together everything he had taught, so that nothing would be lost or changed. The name is a promise of faithfulness: Theravada Buddhism sees its task as keeping that early teaching as it was handed down, rather than adding new scriptures to it.

The word is still used for living people. A monk who has spent at least ten rains retreats in robes is called a thera, an elder, and one with twenty or more a mahāthera, a great elder. Seniority in the community is counted by years in robes, not by age or worldly position.

The Pali Canon: the scriptures of Theravada Buddhism

The scriptures of Theravada Buddhism are the Tipitaka, 'the three baskets', also called the Pali Canon. The first basket, the Vinaya, holds the training rules for monks and nuns. The second, the Suttas, holds the discourses of the Buddha and of his leading disciples. The third, the Abhidhamma, restates the teaching as a precise analysis of mind and matter. For centuries these texts were passed on by group recitation, and they were written down in Sri Lanka in the first century BCE.

Beside the canon stand the commentaries, which were put into their present Pali form in Sri Lanka in the fifth century CE, and later handbooks such as Buddhaghosa's Visuddhimagga, 'the Path of Purification'. Pali has no script of its own, so the same texts are printed in Sinhala, Burmese, Thai, Lao, Khmer and Roman letters. Most lay people meet the canon through chanting, sermons and short collections such as the Dhammapada rather than by reading it from beginning to end.

The core teachings

At the centre of Theravada Buddhism are the teachings the Buddha gave in his first sermon and returned to throughout his life:

The Four Noble Truths: suffering, its origin in craving, its ending, and the path that leads to its ending.
The Noble Eightfold Path: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right stillness of mind.
The three characteristics: all conditioned things are impermanent and unsatisfactory, and nothing at all is a lasting self.
Kamma: intentional action has results, in this life and beyond, and rebirth continues as long as craving and ignorance remain.
Dependent origination: everything in experience arises from conditions and ceases when its conditions cease.
Nibbāna: the end of greed, hatred and delusion, and so the end of suffering, the goal of the whole path.

The ideal figure is the arahant, a person whose mind is completely free of the defilements through following the path the Buddha taught. Theravada also honours the path of the bodhisatta, the long training of someone who aims to become a Buddha in a future age, but most practitioners aim for the freedom that the Buddha's own disciples reached, step by step, beginning with stream-entry (sotāpatti), the first stage of awakening.

Monks, nuns and lay people

Theravada Buddhism has a strong monastic core. Fully ordained monks (bhikkhu) keep the Vinaya, including the 227 rules of the Pāṭimokkha, the code they recite together every fortnight. They own very little, eat only between dawn and midday, and live on what is offered, traditionally on the morning alms round. Novices (sāmaṇera) keep ten precepts. Women who renounce the household life live as nuns keeping eight or ten precepts, and in some places as fully ordained bhikkhunīs.

Monks and lay people depend on each other. Lay supporters provide the four requisites, food, robes, lodging and medicine; monks in return teach the Dhamma, lead chanting and show what a simple life looks like. In several Theravada countries many men ordain for a short time, from a few days to a three-month rains retreat, and then return to lay life, while others stay in robes for life.

A lay Buddhist goes for refuge to the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Saṅgha, and keeps the five precepts: not killing, not stealing, no sexual misconduct, no false speech and no intoxicants. On observance days (uposatha), which follow the phases of the moon, some lay people keep eight precepts and spend the day at a monastery, listening to the Dhamma and meditating.

Practice: giving, virtue and meditation

Daily practice in Theravada Buddhism is often summed up in three words, dāna, sīla and bhāvanā, the three main grounds for making merit. Dāna is generosity, from offering food to monks to helping anyone in need. Sīla is virtue, restraint in body and speech. Bhāvanā is the development of the mind, or meditation. They support each other: giving loosens the grip of attachment, virtue frees the mind from remorse, and a mind without remorse settles more easily in meditation.

Meditation has two sides, calm (samatha) and insight (vipassanā). Calm gathers and steadies the mind on one object, such as the breath or loving-kindness. Insight looks at body and mind as they really are, until their impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and lack of a self are seen directly. Both rest on the four foundations of mindfulness taught in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta. In the twentieth century insight meditation spread widely among lay people as well as monks. To learn more, read what is vipassana and our overview of Buddhist meditation.

Chanting belongs to everyday practice too. Many homes and monasteries chant in Pali in the morning and evening: homage to the Buddha, the qualities of the Buddha, Dhamma and Saṅgha, and short discourses such as the Discourse on Loving-kindness. The meaning matters more than the sound, which is why every chant on this site comes with a translation.

Where Theravada Buddhism is practised

Theravada Buddhism is the main religion of Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, which together are home to well over 100 million Theravada Buddhists. There are also long-standing Theravada communities in parts of Bangladesh, northeast India, Vietnam and southern China, and since the twentieth century monasteries and meditation groups have opened in Europe, the Americas, Australia and elsewhere.

According to the old Sri Lankan chronicles, the teaching reached Sri Lanka in the third century BCE with the monk Mahinda, who came from India, and over the following centuries it spread into mainland Southeast Asia. Customs differ from country to country, from the colour of the robes to the style of chanting, but the core is the same everywhere: the same Pali texts, the same monastic rules and the same path.

How Theravada differs from Mahayana

Mahayana, 'the great vehicle', is the form of Buddhism that developed in India from around the start of the common era and spread to China, Korea, Japan and Vietnam, and, in the form often called Vajrayana, to Tibet and the Himalayas. Theravada Buddhism and Mahayana share the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, kamma and rebirth, the three characteristics and the goal of awakening. The main differences, in plain terms:

Scriptures: Theravada keeps to the Pali Canon. Mahayana also preserves early discourses, in Chinese and Tibetan translation, and adds many later sutras, such as the Lotus Sutra and the Heart Sutra, which Theravada does not include in its canon.
Ideal: Theravada centres on the arahant, freed by following the Buddha's teaching. Mahayana centres on the bodhisattva, who vows to become a Buddha for the sake of all beings, and encourages everyone to take that path.
Buddhas and bodhisattvas: Theravada focuses on Gotama Buddha, the Buddha of our age. Mahayana also honours many other Buddhas and bodhisattvas, such as Amitābha and Avalokiteśvara, known in Chinese as Guanyin.
Language and schools: Theravada chants mainly in Pali. Mahayana chants in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Tibetan and other languages, and includes schools such as Zen and Pure Land.
Monastic customs: Theravada monks keep the old rule of not eating after midday and usually rely on alms. Customs in Mahayana monasteries vary, and many keep a vegetarian diet.

You may still see the older name Hīnayāna, 'the lesser vehicle', used for Theravada. It comes from early Mahayana debates and is felt as dismissive, so it is best avoided. The differences are real, but they are differences within one family of traditions that all look back to the same teacher.

How to begin with Theravada Buddhism

You do not need to join anything to start. A simple way in:

Learn the three refuges and what they mean, and say them each morning.
Keep the five precepts as well as you can, and notice how they change your days.
Read a little each week: the Dhammapada, the first sermon, the Kalama Sutta.
Sit for fifteen to twenty minutes a day, with the breath as your object.
Visit a monastery near you. Most welcome visitors; dress modestly, sit lower than the monks, and ask a lay supporter how things are done there.

Theravada Buddhism asks for no blind belief. The Buddha told the Kālāmas to test teachings against their own experience and the advice of the wise, and to keep what leads to welfare and happiness. Start small, practise steadily, and see for yourself.

Based on: Mahāparinibbāna Sutta (DN 16) · Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta (SN 56.11) · Kesamutti Sutta (to the Kālāmas) (AN 3.65) · Visuddhimagga, by Buddhaghosa