Abstract

Theravāda is the tradition of Buddhism associated with South and South‐East Asia. Important cultural and literary archives from Theravāda Buddhist countries are preserved in Western countries with former colonial influence in the region, notably France and the United Kingdom, as well as Denmark and Germany. The history of the Theravāda tradition is properly pursued in relation to institutions in Sri Lanka and later South‐East Asia. Theravāda identity is also therefore partly about the transmission and observation of distinctive monastic regulations, and indeed the field of monastic law (alongside Abhidhamma and Pāli grammar) has clearly absorbed considerable intellectual activity in Theravāda countries – as it did in medieval European Christian monasticism – as much as doctrinal matters.