Siam Nikaya

The Siam Nikaya is a monastic order within Sri Lankan Buddhism founded by the Thai monk Upali Thera of Siam, who arrived in the Kingdom of Kandy on July 20, 1753, at the invitation of the Sri Lankan monk Weliwita Sri Saranankara Thera to restore higher ordination practices that had lapsed on the island. Named after Thailand's historical name of Siam, the order was centered on Kandy and has since spread across the country, remaining the oldest active Buddhist fraternity in Sri Lanka and administering more than 6,000 temples, including major sites such as the Temple of the Tooth Relic. It is organized into two chapters, Malwatta and Asgiriya, each led by its own chief monk, with roughly 18,780 monks across nearly 6,000 monasteries, and its founding is credited with purifying Buddhist practice on the island and reorganizing important ceremonies such as the Kandy Esala Perahera festival. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/