Sunday, April 15, 2007

Buddhism in Thailand : Chiang Mai Period part 1

While one of the Thai tribes of the Chao Phraya River was founding Sukhothai kingdom, another tribe in the north-western tableland, called Lanna, was also successful in driving out the Mons influence from the River Ping. In the nineteenth Buddhist century King Meng-Rai of the ancient Chiang-San dynasty was known to have defeated King Ye-Ma, the Mon king of the town of Lamphun, and later built his capital at Chiang Mai.During this time Theravada Buddhism of Ceylon had been brought from their flourishing states in the Mons country and in Sukhothai to the north-western tableland, but was not able to take its firm roots there. In the twentieth Buddhist century through the royal order of King-Kue-Na, several “Lankavangsa” bhikkhus both from Moulmein (Mau-Ta-Ma) and from Sukhothai were invited to Chiang-Mai (750 km. north of Bangkok) to preach their doctrine. Of these bhikkhus along with their followers, one named Ananda was from the town of Mua-Ta-Ma in the Mons country and the other called Sumana was from Sukhothai.

Technorati tags : / / / / /

No comments: