Reflections on Monastic Reform and the Reinstallation of Theravāda in Bangladesh

This contribution reflects on the nineteenth‑ and early‑twentieth‑century reinstallation of Theravāda Buddhism in Bangladesh, situating monastic reform within the long history of Buddhist transmission in Bengal. While southeastern Bengal had survived as a marginalized Buddhist region with weakened ordination lineages and fragmented institutional authority, reformers such as Sāramedha Mahāsthabir and Saṅgharāj Ācāriya Purṇāchār Chandramohan Mahāsthabir sought to restore continuity, legitimacy, and doctrinal coherence. Drawing on historical sources, regional Buddhist historiography, monastic narratives, and institutional records, the speaker reflects on how lineage reform functioned as the central mechanism through which religious authority was renegotiated and restored. In a context where doubts concerning higher ordination, Vinaya observance, and ritual propriety had eroded communal confidence, revitalization was framed as both a return to canonical orthodoxy and a moral purification of the Saṅgha. These reflections also consider how reform unfolded within a dynamic environment shaped by transregional mobility across the Bay of Bengal and renewed connections with Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia, ultimately producing the Saṅgharāj Nikāya and Mahāsthabir Nikāya as structured systems of monastic governance.