Ashoka Sends Missionaries Across Asia
A son travels to Sri Lanka and Buddhism becomes an exported religion for the first time
Quick facts
- Regions receiving missions
- Sri Lanka, China, Thailand, Greece, among others
- Key missionary to Sri Lanka
- Mahinda, Ashoka's son
- Sri Lankan king converted
- Devanampiya Tissa
- Long-term result
- Sri Lanka becomes a center of Theravada Buddhism
What happened
Having embraced Buddhism after Kalinga, Ashoka did not keep it within his own borders. World History Encyclopedia records that he sent Buddhist missionaries to other regions and nations, including modern-day Sri Lanka, China, Thailand, and Greece, an effort credited with establishing Buddhism as a major world religion rather than a strictly Indian one. His own son Mahinda headed the mission to Sri Lanka, where tradition holds he converted King Devanampiya Tissa and the Sri Lankan royal court, planting a Buddhist tradition on the island that would endure and, centuries later, send Buddhism back outward into Southeast Asia.
Why it matters
Ashoka's missionary program is the point at which Buddhism stopped being a religion confined to the Ganges plain and became a genuinely international one; Sri Lanka in particular would become the seat of the Theravada tradition and, later, a source from which Buddhism was reintroduced to parts of Southeast Asia after periods of decline elsewhere.
How we know
Ashoka's own edicts describe his general policy of sending dhamma envoys abroad, while the specific mission of Mahinda to Sri Lanka is recorded in the island's own chronicle traditions, the Mahavamsa and Dipavamsa, composed some centuries after the events they describe.
Sources
- World History Encyclopedia. Buddhism · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- World History Encyclopedia. Ashoka the Great · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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Related timelines
- Ancient India → · See the Ancient India timeline for more on Ashoka's empire and how Mauryan power projected missionaries and diplomacy beyond India's borders.