Theravada Buddhism dies out

If I get this right the existence of Theravada Buddhism in South East Asia depended on medieval missions from Sri Lanka. Without those, the Buddhism in South East Asia could diverge in all kinds of directions or be subject to some other common trend. I think it would be interesting if more tantric and Esoteric Buddhist influences spread to South East Asia instead.

But maybe there's also a question 'how much would this really change' given the local religions already incorpoate 'Hindu' and folk elements.

As WIs, what if Theravada Buddhism fell out of favour in Sri Lanka in the early 2nd millenium, or maybe it was conquered and held in the long term by the Cholas?
 
If I am not wrong, I was told some country where Theravada (maybe Vietnam?) before turning to Mahayana Buddhism, and Thailand may have had some form of localised Hinduism before turning to this buddhism... Change the kings, change the geopolitics, and you may screw it's fate...
 
Not just Sri Lanka- Hinduism and Buddhism came as a package to SEA- the average person would have adopted a mix of Hindu/Buddhist/Indigenous practices in daily life and the "official" religion simply depended on which group the local king happened to patronise. It might not be tantric or esoteric Buddhism but rather a different form of Hinduism or even an indigenous form of Buddhism.
 
That there was syncretic indianised Hindu-Buddhist religion earlier, I hope I didn't look like I was disputing. Not attributing that to Sri Lanka. :) But I'm still hazy on to what extent if any there was a distinct wave of Theravada-isation later.

In the case that governments consistently patronised Hinduism, I would expect it would especially impact literacy given the influence that monks had as teachers. I was under the impression that South East Asian countries did not ever adopt an Indian-based caste system...
 
In the case that governments consistently patronised Hinduism, I would expect it would especially impact literacy given the influence that monks had as teachers. I was under the impression that South East Asian countries did not ever adopt an Indian-based caste system...

Depends on what you mean by an Indian-based caste system. There was never a single caste system even within India- it varies hugely depending on time and place. If you look at Balinese Hinduism there is a caste system but it breaks down relatively simply.

Even the idea of consistently patronising Hinduism doesn't mean there won't be monks. Think of it as being like Japan where Buddhism tends to deal with the transitional rituals of life- marriage, births, deaths while Shinto deals with people's everyday practise and belief. Just because the court supported Shinto didn't mean that Buddhism ceased to have relevance.
 
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