alternatehistory.com

So, I was browsing the Alternate History Wikia, and I found an Alternate History timeline there which interested me. It appears to be dead, and it isn't that long, but it has an interesting scenario. I don't know enough about the subject to judge exactly how plausible it is, though.

http://althistory.wikia.com/wiki/Theravada_India

I'll quote the main page:

LurkerLordB said:
The year is 1056, and two Buddhist kings reign over kingdoms in the Bay of Bengal region: Anawrahta, ruler of the Pagan Empire, and Vigrahapala III, the king of the Pala. A Mon Monk named Shin Arahan travels from his homeland, hoping to create a truer Theravada state than what he deems the Thaton Empire to have become. He plans to travel to Pagan to take advantage of Anawrahta's dissatisfaction with the Buddhist clergy in hopes that the Burmese king will switch schools and create his perfect Buddhist state. The POD is a very simple one: as Arahan travels north, he trips, falls, and breaks his leg. He is forced to recover at a Buddhist monastery along his journey, and rest there for many months. He makes a full recovery, but by the time he reaches Pagan, it is 1057. King Anawrahta is at war with Thaton, and does not wish to speak to a monk from his nation's enemy. Thus, Arahan travels west, to the empire of Pala, to the court of Vigrahapala III. Arahan, a skilled missionary who could have converted the Pagan king but a year before, manages to convince Vigrahapala III to leave Mahayana and become Theravada. Thus, when Sri Lanka's king Vijayabahu calls for aid from his fellow Theravada monarch to help him against the Hindu Cholas, it is Vigrahapala III who responds, sending aid from the north to help his fellow Buddhist. A couple years later, when Vijayabahu asks for Buddhist scriptures to help restore Buddhism in Sri Lanka, it is Vigrahapala III who sends them. And a few decades after that, when the Theravada orders of Sri Lanka have beyond recovered, and now seek to send missionaries, to spread their religion, they look not in the direction of Pagan, towards south-east Asia, but towards Pala, towards Buddhism's birthplace: India.

So, basically, as the timeline develops, three main religious differences in Southern/Southeastern Asia develop:


  1. Burma stays Mahayana Buddhist. This seems rather plausible, since it was only one king's issues with the clerics which converted them in OTL, and there are easier ways to subdue rebellious clergy other than switching entire schools of your religion.
  2. Hindu Cambodia (and Laos too). Cambodia was Hindu at this time, and appears to have suffered intense religious struggles, with Hindu kings and Mahayana and Theravada kings. It seems plausible for the Hindu side to be able to win out against Mahayana in this scenario, especially if the bordering, enemy kingdoms like Thailand are Mahayana.
  3. And of course the titular change, India going Theravada Buddhist. While it seems plausible, the exact scenario in the TL seems unlikely. First, it relies on the Pala emperor being as easily converted as the Burmese king, which does not seem certain since he didn't seem to have any issues. Second, it relies on the Indian kings being as easily converted as the Southeast Asian monarchs were by the Sri Lankan monks. Third, it assumes that the successor states to the defeated Pala emperor continue to promote Theravada Buddhism. While all of these things could happen, I don't know how likely they are.
Anyone more knowledgeable on this subject want to comment on this timeline?
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