How is the original form of Buddhism from India different from that of Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia?
I need this for an assignment and I can't really figure out how they are different. Just that Sri Lanka and most of Southeast Asia practice Theravada Buddhism. But I don't really understnad the difference from the original form of Buddhism.
Other - Cultures & Groups - 2 Answers
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1 :
the original Buddhism is in nepal, srilaka, india and south east asian countries. Buddha himself is Nepalese not indian but he went to study a lot of magic stuffs with the wizards and hermits in india and then he enlighted in india but his religion doesn't famous in india because indian ppl like the religion that have a magnificent ritual for example, the Hindus and Brahman. - most of the nepalese, srilakan and south east asian like thai practice both Hindus and Buddism. they believe that hindus and buddism is the same religion. take a look at thailand for instance? the monk build the biggest Genesha ( one of Hindus god) statue in the world nearby a river in thailand. I caucasian and was born in thailand, I'm Buddist... as I know Theravada is the oldest sect of Buddism. the monk can't touch the women but Mahayana sect, the monks can toch women.
2 :
Well, we don't really know what exactly 'the original form' of Buddhism was. The Theravada school claims to be the closest, but other traditions would not necessarily agree with that. Theravada was one of many slightly different traditions that appeared after the Buddha passed away - not unlike what happened in Christianity. This happens simply because one can always interpret teachings somewhat differently. When the Buddha's teachings were first written down in the 'Pali canon', this became a bit like the bible for the Theravada Buddhists. We will probably never know which teachings of the Buddha were simply forgotten or wrongly memorized when writing don this canon hundreds of years after the passing away of the Buddha. Again, comparing this to Christianity, also the Bible was compiled hundreds of years after Jesus passed away, and even if all the original texts were copied and translated correctly, what about the experience and memories of other disciples?
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