This chapter provides the historical context of “early Buddhism”, the roughly four centuries of oral transmission from the death of the Buddha until his teachings were written down for the first time. It recounts how Buddhist doctrine was memorised by chanting aloud, using such mnemonic devices as repetition and ordered lists; it also shows how errors in transmission could have been introduced. Such errors became more likely as Buddhism spread throughout the Indian sub-continent and beyond into Central Asia, the number of monasteries increased, and sectarian differences arose, with each school preserving its own canon. The importance of comparative textual analysis is demonstrated by reference to accounts in Pali, Sanskrit, and Chinese of the Buddha’s first sermon, the founding of the Buddhist Saṅgha (order of monks), and of the First Buddhist Council.

This chapter argues that Thai manners today, although expressed in secular terms, contain vestiges of an older Buddhist theory of how to master the self. This theory, which is based on well-known Buddhist scripture as well as monastic and lay practice, places importance on training oneself to restrain one's body (kai), one’s speech (waja), and the mind (jai). Ideals of Buddhist conduct in the Theravada Buddhist world are often associated with the stories of the bodhisatta, the future Buddha, particularly through the Jataka tales. However, Buddhist scriptures also prescribe ideal forms of behaviour for the bourgeois 'householder', especially in the Sigalovada Sutta, which was popular throughout the Theravada Buddhist world. The chapter situates these discourses of good conduct within Thai history in the nineteenth century, when political, economic, and social changes were producing a more bourgeois society, albeit within the political framework of a traditional absolute monarchy.