just to nit pick
but thailand is 95% theravada buddhist
that 95% doesnt count the many mahayana buddhists there as well (mostly chinese and vietnamese)
Are you sure of that?
It seems unlikely to me; the ethnic Chinese here are highly integrated with the Thai mainstream and pursue much the same sort of Buddhist activities as Thai Theravadins. In a survey I just can't picture many of them self-identifying as a different sort of Buddhist to that of the ethnic Thais. The typical Chinese here will support a Chinese Mahayana temple, but his dealings with it will likely be limited to fortune-telling and funerals; if he starts to take the Dhamma seriously, then he'll seek instruction from a Theravada teacher.
The ethnic Vietnamese seem to be rather more insular than the Chinese, but their numbers, even in Bangkok, are barely sufficient to support more than a handful of temples.
Moreover, I can't picture many Thais describing themselves as Theravada
Buddhists. Setting aside scholar monks and the better educated laity, the word Theravada
won't even be in most Thais' passive vocabularies. If you ask them to specify what sort of Buddhism they practice, the answer is more likely to be "Thai Buddhism."