Southern Esoteric Buddhism

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 with a particular focus on the material found at Angkor.

[4] Historically, the Buddhists of Abhayagiri vihāra in Sri Lanka are known to have practiced Vajrayana[1] and this might have had an influence on Southeast Asia through their missionary work in Java.

[4] According to Cousins, it is also possible that Southern Esoteric Buddhism developed within the "orthodox" Mahavihara tradition of Sri Lanka, citing the 5th century Buddhist scholar Buddhaghosa's mention of secret texts (gulhagantham) as well as other textual evidence from the Pali commentaries.

[4] In establishing the Dhammayuttika Nikaya, Rama IV emphasized the use of the Pali Canon as the main authority for monastic practices and also attempted to remove all superstitious and folk religious elements.

[10] Today, magicians and forest monks using these techniques are most prevalent in the banks of the Mekong in Cambodia and Laos; they are believed to have magical powers, the divine eye and the ability to communicate with spirits.

By this he means "a form of mysticism which utilizes a rather elaborate map of correspondences -between the human body, the cosmos and some kind of higher reality or knowledge.

In the process it draws on the full resources of the widely-dispersed traditions of magic and the occult - letter, sound and number symbolism together with the use of structured patterns of shape or gesture.

[4] Robert Percival (in Ceylon from 1796 to 1800), described Buddhist mantra meditation thus: "To their girdles they wear suspended strings of beads made of a brownish or black wood; and mutter prayers as they go along.

"[1] In one text studied by Bizot, meditation includes the use of visualization of colored lights paired with sacred syllables located throughout the body and visions of the Buddha and a stupa at the top of mount Sumeru.