A Popular Dictionary of Buddhism
The ‘Doctrine of the Elders’ who formed the 1st Buddhist Council (q.v.). The sole survivor of the 18 sects into which by the third century B.C. the original Hīnayāna School of Bsm.
was divided. Until recently this school was known in the West by its generic name of Hīnayāna, which means small or lesser vehicle (of salvation), but this term of reproach, coined by the Mahāyānists, has now been dropped in favour of the more accurate and less discourteous name of Theravāda, the Way of the Elders. (See Hīnayāna, Mahāyāna.) As the Theravāda school covers Ceylon, Burma, Siam and Cambodia it is sometimes called the Southern School, to distinguish it from the Northern or Mahāyāna School which covers Tibet, Mongolia, China, Korea and Japan. (See Pitaka.)
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