Odyssee: Created page with "The '''Theravāda''' ({{Pali|थेरवाद}} ''theravāda''; {{Sanskrit|स्थविरवाद}} ''sthaviravāda m''., literally: "the teaching (''vāda'') of the an..."

2022-01-16T08:02:13Z

Created page with "The '''Theravāda''' ({{Pali|थेरवाद}} ''theravāda''; {{Sanskrit|स्थविरवाद}} ''sthaviravāda m''., literally: "the teaching (''vāda'') of the an..."

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The '''Theravāda''' ({{Pali|थेरवाद}} ''theravāda''; {{Sanskrit|स्थविरवाद}} ''sthaviravāda m''., literally: "the teaching (''vāda'') of the ancients (''thera'')") goes back to the monastic community that was formed from the first followers of the [[Buddha]] and is thus the oldest school of [[Buddhism]]. The followers of [[Mahayana]], the second major school of Buddhism, pejoratively categorise Theravada as [[Hinayana]] (skrt. "lesser vehicle"), since here everyone is supposedly only striving for their own salvation from the painful [[cycle of rebirths]]. This is firmly rejected by the followers of Theravada. In fact, the [[bodhisattva]] ideal is also central to Theravada. In terms of content, Theravada, in contrast to Mahayana, is based almost exclusively on the [[w:Pali canon|Pali canon]], the oldest collection of the teachings of Buddha [[Siddhartha Gautama]] that has been handed down coherently, whereas no generally binding canon was established in Mahayana.

Today, Theravada is mainly represented in [[w:Sri Lanka|Sri Lanka]], [[w:Myanmar|Myanmar]], [[w:Thailand|Thailand]] ([[w:Siam|Siam]]), [[w:Cambodia|Cambodia]], [[w:Laos|Laos]], and partly also in [[w:Vietnam|Vietnam]] and in the [[w:Yunnan|Yunnan]] province in the [[w:China|People's Republic of China]].

== See also ==

* {{WikipediaEN|Theravada}}

[[Category:Buddhism]]
[[de:Theravada]]

Theravada - Revision history

Odyssee: Created page with "The '''Theravāda''' ({{Pali|थेरवाद}} ''theravāda''; {{Sanskrit|स्थविरवाद}} ''sthaviravāda m''., literally: "the teaching (''vāda'') of the an..."