The Encyclopedia of World Religions

Thomas, gospel of S 449

the communist Khmer Rouge (1975–79). Thailand has been spared the worst but has undergone the traumas of rapid modernization. Through all these vicissitudes, Theravada Buddhism has offered the peoples of these nations a place of inner refuge and symbols of continuity with the culture of their past. Further reading: Winston King, Theravada Meditation (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1980); Winston King, A Thousand Lives Away (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1964); Robert Lester, Theravada Buddhism in Southeast Asia (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1973). Thomas, gospel of An ancient collection of sayings of J ESUS allegedly recorded by Thomas the Apostle. The B IBLE contains four GOSPELS (books about what Jesus said and did), but many more gospels have survived from antiquity. Two of them are said to have been written by an apostle of Jesus named Thomas. According to one of them, the Gospel of Thomas, Thomas was Jesus’ twin brother. (In Aramaic, the language of Palestine in the time of Jesus, Thomas means “twin.”) THE INFANCY GOSPEL OF THOMAS The “Infancy Gospel of Thomas” tells about Jesus as a boy, a topic about which the N EW T ESTAMENT says very little. It ends with a story that the Gos pel of Luke tells, too: how Jesus stayed behind in the temple at Jerusalem and worried his parents. But other stories present a Jesus who is quite dif ferent from what most Christians imagine. When playmates made fun of birds Jesus was mak ing out of clay, he brought them to life. When a boy kicked open a dam and drained a pond that Jesus had made, Jesus cursed the boy, who then shriveled and died. At one point Jesus got into an argument with his teacher; he cursed the teacher, who seems to have died, too. Apparently, the people who preserved this gospel were most interested in Jesus’ powers to work wonders, not in his virtue.

well. Theravada countries have a striking number of ornate temples, each containing a gilded image of the Buddha. Rather than meditate like monks, laypeople typically try to make good KARMA , or merit, by such practices as gilding images of the Buddha, giving support to the monks, perform ing acts of everyday charity and compassion to all beings. They may then in time win REINCARNATION as a monk on the way to arhathood. They may also gain rebirth in one of the Buddhist heavens, splendid places even if short of NIRVANA , but their time there lasts only as long as the good karma they have obtained holds out. In all Theravada lands except Sri Lanka young men ideally enter a monastery for a year or so. They learn the basics of the religion and experi ence another way of life than that of the outside world. Most do not remain monastics, but those who do become elder monks and revered spiritual teachers, highly honored by laypeople and junior monks alike. B UDDHIST FESTIVALS are important to popular Buddhism in Theravada lands. The chief annual festival is Wesak in the spring, commemorating the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and entry into nirvana. On this day, trees are watered, candles and incense are burned, and rockets are set off. A month later, the rainy season begins, which for Theravadins is a time of special religious discipline, rather like Lent for some Christians. The monks remain in retreat in monasteries. Many laypeople resolve to follow Buddhist morality more strictly than otherwise. At the end of the retreat, another great festival is held with traditional dances and the formal presentation of gifts to the monks. In the 20th century, the Theravada world suf fered considerably from war and rapid change. When Sri Lanka and Burma (later Myanmar) won freedom from Britain, monks played a leading role in the independence movements. Subsequently Sri Lanka was shocked by internal conflict between the Buddhist Singhalese and the Hindu Tamil minority, and Myanmar has experienced political repression. Cambodia and Laos were caught up in the dev astating Vietnamese War; subsequently Cambodia suffered under the particularly brutal regime of