Ari Buddhism or the Ari Gaing ( my, အရည်းဂိုဏ်း, ) is the name given to the religious practice common in

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

prior to

Anawrahta Anawrahta Minsaw ( my, အနော်ရထာ မင်းစော, ; 11 May 1014 – 11 April 1077) was the founder of the Pagan Empire. Considered the father of the Burmese nation, Anawrahta turned a small principality in the dry zone ...

's rise and the subsequent conversion of Bagan to

Theravada Buddhism ''Theravāda'' () ( si, ථේරවාදය, my, ထေရဝါဒ, th, เถรวาท, km, ថេរវាទ, lo, ເຖຣະວາດ, pi, , ) is the most commonly accepted name of Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school' ...

in the eleventh century. It was introduced in the 7th century, possibly through trade contact from India or Tibet.

History

Ari practices have largely been categorized as a tantric form of Buddhism, combining elements of Buddhism,

nat Nat or NAT may refer to: Computing * Network address translation (NAT), in computer networking Organizations * National Actors Theatre, New York City, U.S. * National AIDS trust, a British charity * National Archives of Thailand * National As ...

worship, indigenous

nāga The Nagas (IAST: ''nāga''; Devanāgarī: नाग) are a divine, or semi-divine, race of half-human, half-serpent beings that reside in the netherworld (Patala), and can occasionally take human or part-human form, or are so depicted in art. ...

worship and

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...

. Some scholars claim that it is related to the Buddhist religious practices of

Nanzhao Nanzhao (, also spelled Nanchao, ) was a dynastic kingdom that flourished in what is now southern China and northern Southeast Asia during the 8th and 9th centuries. It was centered on present-day Yunnan in China. History Origins Nanzh ...

and the subsequent

Dali Kingdom The Dali Kingdom, also known as the Dali State (; Bai: Dablit Guaif), was a state situated in modern Yunnan province, China from 937 until 1253. In 1253, it was conquered by the Mongols but members of its former ruling dynasty continued to a ...

in modern-day

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the C ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. Other historians like

Than Tun Than Tun ( my, သန်းထွန်း, ; 6 April 1923 – 30 November 2005) was an influential Burmese historian as well as an outspoken critic of the military junta of Burma. For his lifelong contributions to the development of worldwide ...

contend that the Aris were forest-dwelling monks who simply differed in monastic practice from Theravadin

bhikkhu A ''bhikkhu'' (Pali: भिक्खु, Sanskrit: भिक्षु, ''bhikṣu'') is an ordained male in Buddhist monasticism. Male and female monastics ("nun", ''bhikkhunī'', Sanskrit ''bhikṣuṇī'') are members of the Sangha (Buddhist ...

s, especially with regard to adherence to the Vinaya, as they were much less orthodox, allowed to consume alcohol, engage in sexual relations, and eat after midday. Despite his conversion to Theravada Buddhism due to the efforts of a Mon

named

Shin Arahan , image =Shin Arahan.JPG , caption = Statute of Shin Arahan in Ananda Temple , birth name = , alias = , dharma_name = mnw, ဓမ္မဒဿဳ , birth_date = c. 1034 , b ...

still supported Mahayana cultic practices and printed coins in

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

rather than Pali.

References

Bibliography

* *Chan, Maung (March 2005
Theravada Buddhism and Shan/Thai/Dai/Laos Regions
History of Buddhism in Myanmar Vajrayana Buddhist schools {{Buddhism-stub