Lesson video

Hello! Welcome back.

My name's Ms. Pauvaday.

We are going to be continuing with our lessons on Buddhism.

Today, we're going to be looking at a particular branch, a particular denomination of Buddhism known as Theravada.

Probably the one that is most recognisable, I would say.

So stick with me, and we're going to learn a bit more about Theravada Buddhism today.

So today you will need, usual things.

You need a pen, you need some paper, you need to make sure that we're nice and focused today.

There is going to be some discussion as well on sensitive topics.

We're going to be looking at wars and violence, that kind of thing.

We're going to touch on those.

It's all linked to the history of Theravada, really.

So by all means, if you want to speak to someone, have a parent or guardian with you who wants to go over this lesson, that's totally fine.

It's good to ask questions.

It's good to talk to people about what you're studying and if you feel that you want to be with someone, that's completely fine.

Lots of students do that.

And even afterwards, if you feel slightly uncomfortable, do go and talk to the adults in your life.

So take a moment to pause, make sure you've got everything you need.

Make sure you're in a nice, quiet environment, that you have someone with you, or you feel comfortable where you are, and we're going to get ready to get going in a moment.

So un-pause when you're ready.

So today, we're going to be looking at, a closer look at Theravada Buddhism.

What are the main focuses of their beliefs? How is Theravada practised? And what are the main festivals and celebrations? Okay.

You have seen lots of images of Buddhists and Buddhists and that kind of thing in these series of lessons, you might've even seen them at school.

You might've even seen them just, you know, in your town.

It's not that uncommon to see Buddhist monks.

Buddhism is quite a popular religion, actually in this country.

It's not, obviously, the most popular one.

Christianity and Islam are the most practised, but you will see quite a lot of Western Buddhists here.

So this might be something that you see.

So which of these do you think are Theravada Buddhists? So they're all Buddhists, which do you think belong to the Theravada traditions? Have a pause, have a think, and then join me when you're ready.

So, okay.

The orange and, or saffron robes are typically associated with Theravada.

Very, kind of, iconic picture of Southeast Asia when you see holiday brochures or things like that.

Some people are lucky to go on holiday to these places.

Yeah.

It's quite iconic, quite in your face, really.

Wouldn't really be able to hide, if you, you know, as we know from the denomination lesson, when the Buddhists were being invaded, it was difficult for Theravada Buddhists to hide.

They had their, their robes were so bright.

So we're going to think about why that is.

So why do you think they're called saffron robes? Okay.

So saffron robe.

Particularly, what happened, the earliest Buddhists, so this is still in North India, what was happening was, they wouldn't go out and buy a robe that just wouldn't happen.

You would find like, kind of rags or things like that, and then cut out the parts that you can use and sew them together.

And as the Sangha grew, Buddha started to have more and more followers.

He started to add, well, he had to add rules because to guide these monks and nuns, because the organisation is getting bigger and bigger.

So the Vinaya Pitaka has actually rules on robes.

How you, how they're put together, how they're worn, all of those kind of things.

And the cloth has to be pure cloth.

So, like I said, it's either been thrown away or damaged.

So you're not going to buy, remember monks and nuns, they don't have money.

They've renounced all of that.

They've come away from that society.

So they're really using things that have been thrown away.

And they, like I said, they cut out the bits that can't be used.

They wash it, give it a very, very, very good wash.

It's very important to be clean in, in Buddhism and Hinduism actually.

And then they were dyed with leaves or tubers, these are kind of like roots or spices such as turmeric and saffron.

And that's where the bright colour comes from.

You can see that you've got some saffron, it's the red colour and it's actually saffron powder.

Saffron, the saffron flower is actually quite expensive, but saffron powder is easy to get hold of.

And turmeric is yellow.

So, you know, you might see this in the supermarket, when you're out in the supermarket, you might see these spices.

They're there.

They're Asian, Indian spices.

Okay.

Why do you think robes could only be made of pure cloth? So go ahead, have a pause, have a think.

Why could it only be made of pure cloth? So pure cloth again is cloth that has been thrown away.

So it doesn't belong to anyone, it's been thrown away.

It's been discarded.

Often it's because it's been damaged and then they have to cut around all the damaged parts, keep only the good parts and sew it together.

And that's what they call pure cloth.

So why? Why do you think Buddhist monks and nuns do that? Okay.

So hopefully you've had a good think about it and hopefully you have pieced it together, thinking about the, the Sangha and the rules of the Sangha and what it means to, kind of, denounce society.

So monks and nuns, they, again, they're not, they don't have money.

So it's not something that they, they don't have many possessions.

Because again, this is trying to curb this idea of desire.

These guys, these guys are serious about enlightenment.

So they've got a really quite, you know, quite determined path.

So no money, they can't go out and buy something.

And also they're trying to get away this idea of, away from this idea of vanity wearing.

'Cause often clothes are seen as, can lead to desire.

It's not a bad thing to look good.

Of course, it's not a bad thing, but if you get too caught up in it, it can lead to suffering.

Maybe you start feeling bad about the way you look or your hair, or, you know, all sorts of things.

Societies sometimes can make us feel bad about all sorts of silly things.

And that hasn't changed, actually.

That's always been the case by the looks of it.

It's part of human nature.

So that's one of the reasons why, Buddhists would shave their head and they would just wear very plain robes.

Because they're trying to get away from this idea of, you know, trying to look good, because that's not the point for them.

The point for them is to just to focus on enlightenment and not get caught in that kind of a idea.

Right.

Now, do we think Buddhist schools have different beliefs? Okay.

Go ahead, pause.

Think about what you know so far and then join me when you're ready.

Right.

Buddhist schools don't really have different beliefs.

No.

They all follow the Dharma, the basic teachings of the Buddha.

The difference between the schools, as you will see is, they emphasise different teachings of the Dharma.

So today we're going to look at how Theravada emphasises certain things.

Next lesson, we will look at other ways that different, Mahayana Buddhists might emphasise, emphasise a different teaching of the Buddha.

But generally speaking, they all have the same beliefs.

Okay, let's have a look at some Theravada countries.

I've mentioned before Southeast Asia.

There's a picture of Thailand.

That's a very typical image that you would find in Thailand.

Actually, you see these big, beautiful Viharas in quite a few different places, all over Thailand.

But it's Theravada is typically associated with Sri Lanka, which is, before it was known as Ceylon, but now it is known as Sri Lanka and Sri Lanka is a very, very strong Theravada country.

The Buddha visited there three times, according to the Mahavamsa, the historical texts of Thailand, of Sri Lanka, and that's where his Dharma was first written down.

It's also associated, Theravada is also associated with Thailand, Burma, those kind of countries.

And these are kind of strong Theravada countries because they, the religion Buddhism has kind of found itself getting involved in government.

So what normally happens in quite a few countries, government and religion are separate things.

So government does its thing and religion, the head of the religious church does its thing.

And they're both kind of respected.

In this country, we have like a kind of, let's say, discussion between the church of England and the government.

So there is some kind of mix.

We're not what we call a secular state.

America is.

America is supposed to be complete separation of government and religion, but that doesn't mean that they can't affect each other.

They don't influence each other.

In these countries, so Sri Lanka, Thailand and Burma, the Buddhist faith has a very strong influence on the government and the laws that happen there.

So that's why we say, these are very strong Theravada countries, Theravada countries.

In Thailand.

So monks in Sri Lanka, for example, they actually are advisors in government.

So it's not uncommon if you ever look at YouTube videos of Sri Lanka, you might see sort of, the prime minister and the King of, the prime minister of Sri Lanka surrounded with some Buddhist monks.

That's because they're advisors to the ministers and previously the King as well.

In Thailand, the Sangha, so the monks and nuns, they're kind of organised in a hierarchical sense.

So that's not what happened with the Buddha necessarily, but in Thailand you have a lead monk, so the head of the monks, and then you kind of have different orders of authority, basically.

So they've implemented this system of kind of governance within the Buddhist religion.

And amazingly, there are even examinations to, for monks to see how far along they are with, on their journey towards enlightenment.

So you can kind of take these exams and it helps, kind of, elder monks to understand how they have to, kind of, guide monks in order to, kind of, progress along the way towards enlightenment.

It's very interesting.

And so you will see monks kind of going to school and, and doing these examinations as well.

And the King of Thailand is, Thailand, a very strong Theravada country, he's actually, he's got the right to choose what's known as the Supreme patriarch, which is patriarch, which is the head of the Buddhist order of monks.

So that's, that's his choice.

So there you've got government and religion kind of, really good example of it kind of being together where the King actually chooses who's going to be the head of the monks.

He definitely has a right to do that.

And in Burma, we kind of looked at a little bit about Burma.

There was this some sad history, recent history there.

Still actually happening, I think, but Burma has got a very strong kind of, Buddhist nationalism.

So what that means is, they're trying to retain their identity as a country.

And they're trying to, their identity is very Buddhist.

And Burma had been taken over by this kind of military, militant government.

Under lots of criticism at the moment, because they're seen as quite oppressive, but what they're doing, the government itself is really promoting Buddhism, Buddhist nationalism.

One of the cons, I mean, it's good for people who are Buddhists in Burma, but one of the consequences, really terrible consequences of that is that people who are not Buddhists are being oppressed.

Many have been killed, actually, to be blunt about it.

So yeah, strange thing that's happening in Burma.

But really, my point here is to show you that these are considered as strong Theravada countries because government and religion have really kind of come together here, in these particular countries.

Now Laos is, Laos would ordinarily be on this list.

It's always been a very strong Theravada country, but again, these, Laos and Cambodia have had really tragic histories that have resulted in a quite a strong decline in Buddhism.

Laos, strong Theravada country.

It didn't, it didn't start that way.

The first Buddhism that arrived there was really Mahayana Buddhism, that kind of, those teachings that we would consider Mahayana.

But when the invading Turks happened, many people, many Buddhists moved to Laos to escape.

And that kind of meant that Theravada just started to become more and more popular.

And it stayed that way for years and years and years until there was a civil war from around 1964 to 1973.

And at the time the, the communist party that came into power that's known as the Pathet Lao, and they initially issued the statement of support for Buddhism.

Typically, communism doesn't really see religion as a good thing.

So if you're going to look at it from a political perspective, generally the, the theory of communism doesn't see religion as a way of helping people or society.

They're not really interested in superstition.

Sadly, we've seen lots of examples in history where communist ideas have been really badly enforced in quite a horrible way.

And this is probably another example of that.

So this Pathet Lao communist party, they initially agreed that they thought, Buddhism was a good thing, but as soon as they got power and as soon as they were popular, they slowly started to oppress and eradicate Buddhism in Laos.

So that's why we can't really say Laos is a strong Theravada country because of this war, but it still has now, now it still has, it's still, it's becoming considered as a Theravada country.

You can go there and you can see lots of examples of Viharas and Buddhists monks.

It's basically slowly coming back.

Cambodia, we've talked about Cambodia briefly.

To know some history about Asia actually as well, not many people know about this, but this was a terrible, terrible genocide.

It's probably known as one of the most brutal.

The Khmer Rouge, probably the most brutal regimes in the 20th century and what they were trying to do, again, they were another kind of communist regime.

They didn't agree with any kind of religion.

They were Cambodian.

So Pol Pot was Cambodian.

He did this to his own people, which is, well, doesn't make any better.

But he, yeah, he effectively was looking, he was following these kind of communist ideas and tried to completely eradicate Buddhism from Cambodia.

So they were in power for about four years.

Their regime was brutal.

I mean, they had, they killed probably 2 million out of a 7 million population, possibly more.

So a huge amount.

And they took an extreme, they took this extreme view of Marxism, which is where communist ideas come from.

I'm not sure Marx would have agreed with all of this.

I'm pretty sure he would have been horrified by all of, how his ideas have been misused.

So, but Marx didn't like the idea of religion.

He thought it really oppressed poorer classes.

That's why he didn't like it.

But in Cambodia, the regime, Khmer Rouge, what they did was, they just got rid of religion in general.

They didn't really, I'm not sure they really followed Marx's ideas.

So the way that they did that was just to get rid of all Buddhists and anyone that was intellectual.

So anyone who had any kind of education, they just, they just got rid of, they just got rid of them because they thought, "Okay, anyone who thinks that they are slightly more intelligent or more better off, or think that they are better than doing kind of hard graft in the fields, they are not going to be good for our communist regime." So they really, it was horrible, really twisted Marxist ideas and they just, they really just brutalised the country and brought it to its knees.

And it was so bad that I think there was probably about 60,000 Buddhist monks before the regime and by the time they were done, there was like maybe 3000.

They were brutal and they didn't last too long because they were so brutal.

They were pretty crazy actually.

So Cambodia, really strong Buddhist country.

The reason I talk about, I'm talking about Cambodia so much is because you can go to, if you go to Cambodia, you'll find one of the seven wonders of the world, Angkor wat, which was originally Buddhist temples from the Khmer kingdom.

There were great, really brilliant, forward thinking civilization, thousands of years ago.

And you can still see these temples.

They're beautiful.

They often pop up in, if you've ever watched Tomb raider or anything like that, they're often filmed around there because you can still see these temples and those temples then became Buddhist temples.

And then for the Khmer rouge to come in and just destroy, try and destroy all that, was really, really tragic.

Buddhism was very strong in Cambodia until that.

And now slowly, they're starting to kind of pick up.

Here's an image of Angkor wat.

It's not one temple, it's a whole network of temples in that whole area.

Really beautiful and massive as well.

So big.

Both countries are trying to heal, particularly Cambodia because that history is not that long ago.

And one of the things that has happened, that has helped them heal, is this resurgence in Theravada Buddhism in both countries, Right.

Let's do a little bit of recall and make sure that we know, that we're okay, we're happy with what we've learned so far.

In which countries do monks sit in enlightened exams? So exams to see how far they are on the path towards enlightenment.

Is it Thailand, Burma, India, or Sri Lanka? Okay, it's Thailand.

Okay.

In which country do monks advise the government and king? Thailand, India, Sri Lanka or Burma? Sri Lanka.

Which regime killed over 3 million people and tried to completely eradicate Buddhism? Was it Pathet Lao, the Khmer Rouge, the Muslim Turks, or was it Sri Lanka? The Khmer Rouge.

All right, let's move on to what? So that's a bit of background about the Theravada, the countries that you're going to find it, a little bit about the history as well.

Now we're going to look at their beliefs.

The Theravada beliefs.

Theravada has two claims really.

One of them is that, they believe themselves to be the oldest school of Buddhism.

So that's something they, they believe that they can trace their lineage back through the Sangha to the Buddha himself.

And if you think about how Buddhism, many Buddhists escaped to the South of India, when the Turks were invaded and they went to Sri Lanka.

The Tripitaka was written down in Sri Lanka.

So that, you know, there's this course to say that they, this is an old, very, very old form, school of Buddhism, and that they can trace their monks all the way back to the Buddha himself.

They take their authority, so they only have the Pali texts.

They will only follow the Pali texts.

They don't really follow any other texts.

The Pali, the Tripitakas are supposed to be what the Buddha actually said.

So remember, you've got this tradition in Buddhism and Hinduism of people memorising, memorising things that's been said.

So oral history.

So, and that was written down.

So that's why they think those texts are the most important.

They think they're the truest, most authentic texts of Buddhism, because the Buddha would have said these things himself.

Now they do acknowledge past Buddhas.

So they don't think the Buddha is the only Buddha.

They think there have been other Buddhas and that there will be future Buddhas, but they think Siddhartha is the thought, the only Buddha of our period.

So that's why he is so important for Theravada Buddhists, but they do believe in future Buddhas.

So for example, Vishnu who is a Hindu deity, in Theravada Buddhism, some of them believe Vishnu to be a future Buddha, a future Bodhisattva.

So there is this kind of belief in other deities and Bodhisattvas.

Now, Buddhists do have the same beliefs, but they have slightly different focuses.

So in Theravada, they really stress something called self-liberation.

So that's effectively becoming enlightened through your own personal power and efforts.

So doing that on your own.

And the reason they do that was because the Buddha did that.

So they see the Buddha as a great role model.

That he was able to do it by himself, so therefore people could do that.

They do believe in, there's some lay Buddhists, so this probably won't happen in monasteries with monks, but some lay Buddhists who are people who just practise Buddhism.

Remember Buddhism and Hinduism kind of merged a bit.

And in Sri Lanka, you did have quite a big population of Tamil Hindus who worshipped , practised a certain type of Hinduism.

So things did kind of merge together.

So it's not uncommon to find Buddhists, lay Buddhists in Sri Lanka, calling upon deities for help because in Theravada Buddhism, there is this idea of 31 different realms of existence.

But really, when you look at the actual texts, there is more of a focus on that the Buddha was a man.

He didn't need anything supernatural to chase him.

He didn't need any deities.

The Buddha is beyond all of that.

Nirvana was beyond all of that.

So beyond gods, beyond Bodhisattvas, beyond all of that.

The Buddha achieved all of that.

And therefore that's what Buddhists should be achieving, aiming for.

They shouldn't be trying to call upon gods to help them.

So it does happen, but not within the tradition.

They kind of say, it's not really necessary.

The Buddha was able to do that, so can you.

So therefore they strive to become, what is known as Arhats, which are enlightened beings.

And it's quite a, you know, dedicated path to becoming an enlightened being and getting to Nirvana.

So because of that, there's an emphasis on the three marks of existence as a guiding principle.

So keeping away from stuff, desire and those kinds of things, making sure that you are aware of impermanence, making sure that you are aware that you're not a concrete being that's never going to change, all of those kinds of things, they focus on.

And they emphasise meditation.

Meditation is really, really important in Theravada Buddhism.

Okay.

What have we learned? What do we, what do we need to remember? So this is just, again, I'm just going to keep doing this to help you keep going back to the most important bits that you need to remember.

So, which two things do the Theravada claim? There's two things here that you need to look for.

So if you want to pause, go ahead.

Okay.

So the first one is they claim to be the oldest school.

Second thing is they claim to have a lineage going back to the Buddha.

So the monks that they have in Sri Lanka now have been taught by previous monks.

They've been taught by previous monks, all the way back to the Buddha himself.

That's what they claim.

And pause if you want to.

In which language are the Theravada texts in? English, Sanskrit, Pali or Thai? Pause if you want to have a think.

Pali.

The Pali is a language that is similar to the language the Buddha would have spoken called Magadhi.

And it was the first place that Buddhism was written down, was in Sri Lanka, which is a similar language at the time.

Okay.

What belief do the Theravada emphasise? So if you want to have a think, pause, join me in a moment with the answers.

Self-liberation.

This is the idea that you can liberate yourself.

You can find your way to enlightenment if you just follow the Dharma and the three jewels.

So focus on that and you don't need to worship any Bodhis or ask for gods to help you or anything like that.

The Buddha did it by himself.

Anyone can do it by himself.

That's what they're really focusing upon.

Let's have a look at some of their practises.

So how did they practise their religion? So we know about Vesak, which is the Buddha's birthday.

It's a really common thing that happens in Southeast Asia.

It's a big celebration, which celebrates the whole journey and at this time you'll see lots of people coming out.

It's a very happy celebration.

Homes are cleaned and decorated.

Lots of food is prepared.

Food is given to monks because monks aren't able to buy food.

They don't have any money.

So they survive on the lay Buddhists to support them.

And so lots of food is given to them.

And what you might find is there were pujas happening, statues of the Buddha were bathed.

And also there's a big focus on giving to charity at this time.

So trying to take care of one another at this time.

In the temples Buddhists will meditate and chant.

They focus on the three jewels and give thanks to them.

There will be pujas in the home as well as in temple, using things like flowers and, flowers and incense to show impermanence.

And as I mentioned, Buddha statues are bathed, and Buddhists really try to become really mindful of their actions at this time and be extra mindful of the eightfold path.

They might even be vegetarians for this time.

And a very common thing that you see in Southeast Asia is birds being released from their cages to kind of symbolise liberation.

And also, another thing that happens is donations will be given to temples to help them because temples often help the poor as well.

So it's another way of kind of giving back to the community.

Another festival that is really, really good, if you ever get a chance to go.

It's known as the water festival all throughout Southeast Asia, and it currently, is actually the Buddhist new year.

So this happens in mid-April and it's known as the world's biggest water fights.

And I've actually been lucky to have experienced it a couple of times.

Very weird because you're walking out of a shop and suddenly someone walks along with a massive bucket of water and just dumps it on your head or they're driving past in a tuktuk or something like that and they're throwing buckets of water at people.

What amazes me is that people are just like, "Okay." It's just the normal thing.

They're really just happy to do it.

So, and it lasts a few days.

It is known as Songkran in Thailand, but it's also celebrated in Cambodia, Laos and Burma.

Water is thrown at everyone.

They just chuck water all day at everyone.

And the reason why is because water represents purification.

It's a new year.

So at this time, Buddhists are thinking, "Okay, I'm going to really take on the Dharma.

I'm going to purify my mind." And the way that that's done in a physical way is throwing water, just to kind of symbolise it's this new year and this new purification.

And ash from incense sticks are also kind of put on people's faces just as a reminder of impermanence.

And then that would have come from the temple because during this time there'll be lots of, kind of temple worship happening, lots of, kind of group meditation, that kind of thing happening.

Right, okay.

Let's see.

Can we see if we can match some key terms? I'm just going to make my face a bit smaller.

So we've got the puja over here.

Go ahead and pause, write these down and write down the definitions for the key terms and join me when you're ready.

Songkran is the water festival, water festival in Buddhism.

Vesak is a.

Puja is a ritual that involves focusing on the Buddha and incense and flowers.

And Vesak is a celebration of the Buddha's birth, enlightenment and teachings as well as his death.

Okay, good.

Give yourself a tick, tick, tick.

I'm sure you've done really well.

Okay.

And your task for today is you're going to create a booklet, on just kind of Buddhists, different types of Buddhisms and each day you're going to add a page.

So today, create a fact file on Theravada Buddhism.

So use this lesson as support, but go ahead and do your own research as well.

Make sure your sources are good.

So I would stick to things like Wikipedia or encyclopaedia, that kind of thing.

Make sure that.

Or GCSE Bitesize.

Those are really good, really good websites.

Yeah.

Maybe avoid Wikipedia because it might be a bit too much.

And you see information from here.

Just go ahead and use this information.

So what you need to do is you need to create an info, intro page with some basic information on Buddhism and its main philosophy.

Then you're going to another page on Theravada Buddhism, maybe separate into three boxes.

So one that focuses on the beliefs.

One, how Theravada is practised.

And the third one, what are the main festivals and celebrations.

And as usual, if you can share it with us, we would really love that.

So we'd love to see your work, but make sure you get permission.

Well done.

Well done.

Another great lesson on Theravada Buddhism.

I'm sure you learned loads.

I'm sure you're comfortable now with the terms. Do keep practising them.

So go ahead afterwards and look at the summary quiz then you can just kind of consolidate some of your knowledge and share what you've learned.

It's always good to talk about what you're learning.

It's a very interesting topic for many people.

And if you can share what you have done today, that would be great.

Make sure you get permission and I will see you again next time.

Bye.