Southern Esoteric Buddhism

Southern Esoteric Buddhism and Borān Kammaṭṭhāna are terms used to refer to a collection of esoteric practices, views, and texts within Theravada Buddhism. Often known as Esoteric Theravada or Tantric Theravada, these labels highlight its parallel with tantric traditions—though it does not employ actual tantras.

L.S. Cousins defines this phenomenon as "a type of Southern Buddhism which links magical and ritual practices to a theoretical systematisation of the Buddhist path itself."

In the West, the study of Southern Esoteric Buddhism was pioneered by professor François Bizot and his colleagues at the École française d'Extrême-Orient. Their research, especially focusing on material discovered at Angkor, has been instrumental in revealing the complex interplay between orthodox Theravada doctrines and these esoteric practices.

Over the past two centuries, the Boran tradition has been marginalized by colonial governments and by the "Protestant Buddhist" movement—reformers who promote a strict "Pali Tipitaka only" sola scriptura approach and dismiss local practices as deviations from orthodox scriptural teachings. As such, the tradition stands in opposition to Buddhist modernism.

Etymology

As a term, Borān Kammaṭṭhāna is a combination of the Tai-Khmer word โบราณ/បុរាណ pronounced [boːraːn] meaning ancient or outdated, derived from the Sanskrit word "Purāṇa" along with the Pali word Kammaṭṭhāna meaning "place of work". Essentially, it refers to outdated and ancient spiritual practices.

Borān Kammaṭṭhāna specifically constitutes Theravada Buddhism that has blended into a distinct form with the ancient folk practices and esoteric spiritual traditions of the Tai-Khmer peoples of Thailand, Laos, Shan State in Myanmar, Cambodia, and the Sipsongpanna district of Yunnan province in China.

However, other parts of the Theravada world also have their own versions of esotericism.