In Mon tradition the arahant Gavampati is the tutelary apostle of Rāmaññadesa, the Mon country, held to have carried the Dhamma to Suvaṇṇabhūmi and to Thaton during the Buddha's own lifetime and to have brought or enshrined relics there. He is one of the great disciples of the Pali canon, remembered for his mastery over the tides, and in Lower Burma his cult attaches to major stupas as an abiding guardian. Sources differ sharply on the age of the legend: the Mon chronicles present it as ancient truth, while critical historians hold the Thaton-Suvaṇṇabhūmi identification to be a later scholastic construction.