Wikipedia
Theravāda ( Pali, literally "school of the elder monks") is a branch of Buddhism that uses the teaching of the Pāli Canon, a collection of the oldest recorded Buddhist texts, as its doctrinal core, but also includes a rich diversity of traditions and practices that have developed over its long history of interactions with cultures and communities. It is the dominant form of religion in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, and is practiced by minority groups in Bangladesh, China, Malaysia, Nepal, and Vietnam. In addition, the diaspora of all of these groups as well as converts around the world practice Theravāda Buddhism.
Usage examples of "theravada".
There had once been eighteen schools of Hinayana teaching -- all of which had dealt with Buddha as a teacher and urged contemplation and study of his teachings rather than worship of him -- but by the time of the Big Mistake, only one of those schools survived, the Theravada, and that only in remote sections of disease- and famine-ravaged Sri Lanka and Thailand, two political provinces of Old Earth.
The Theravada tradition asserts that after the counterpart sign appears and vanishes, one experiences the primal state of the mind from which thoughts originate.
These claims of Theravada Buddhist contemplatives obviously appear incredible in light of our commonsense assumptions about the mind.
Theravada Buddhist contemplatives claim that physical reality may be mentally altered by the contemplative manipulation of the counterpart signs.