{"id":118247,"date":"2021-09-17T14:46:59","date_gmt":"2021-09-17T21:46:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=118247"},"modified":"2021-09-17T14:46:59","modified_gmt":"2021-09-17T21:46:59","slug":"anagarika-dharmapala-157th-birth-anniversary-date-of-birth-september-17-1864-the-life-and-legacy-of-anagarika-dharmapala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/09\/17\/anagarika-dharmapala-157th-birth-anniversary-date-of-birth-september-17-1864-the-life-and-legacy-of-anagarika-dharmapala\/","title":{"rendered":"Anagarika Dharmapala – 157th Birth Anniversary ( Date of Birth – September 17, 1864) The Life and Legacy of Anagarika Dharmapala"},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/strong> Senaka Weeraratna<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

In the modern history of Sri Lanka no\none stands taller than Anagarika Dharmapala. In a country that had witnessed\nthe overthrow of its last king in 1815, seen successive waves of Portuguese,\nDutch and British invasions sweeping away much of the traditional Buddhist\nculture of the country, the unsolicited entry of missionaries of every\nconceivable denomination from both Europe and USA descending on local children\nlike a cloud of locusts with unconcealed plans to wean them away from their\nlongstanding religious beliefs, and make them ashamed of everything that they\nstood for and lived by i.e. their religion, their culture, their language,\ntheir race, their food and their skin colour, it was a time that any \u2018reasonable man\u2019 using a well –\nknown British test introduced into court jargon in 1837 would have thought\nBuddhism had no hope of survival in Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mid -19th<\/sup> century soon\nafter the crushing of the 1848 Matale revolt for independence led to the\nconsolidation of British colonial rule and putting into action a grandiose plan\nto weaken the Buddhist foundations of Sri Lanka. Children born of Buddhist parents\nwere more or less forced to be registered in a church, resulting in biblical\nnames being bestowed on them, and most people were ashamed or afraid to declare\nthemselves Buddhists. It was the worst of times for the indigenous Sinhala\nBuddhists.  Nevertheless In the words of  Bhikkhu Sangharakshita, a\nbiographer of Anagarika Dharmapala Low though the fortunes of the Dhamma had\nsunk, the great beam of the national karma was beginning to right itself, and\ngigantic forces were being set in motion which in the future would lift them to\na position even higher than their present one was low\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Panadura Vadaya <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The birth of a boy on September 17,\n1864 later named as David Hewavitarana was indeed fortuitous for the long\nsuffering indigenous people now beginning to dream of a Buddhist revival in a\nland that has been long plagued by western colonialism and repression of Indian\ncivilizational religions.  The boy David Hewavitarana was only 9 years old\nwhen he witnessed what was to become known as the \u2018 Panadura Vadaya\u2019 in 1873.\nIt was an epochal event in the Buddhist Revival movement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ven. Megettuvatte Gunananda Thera,\nthe great orator and debater and star of the \u2018Panadura Vadaya\u2019 was the\nincumbent of the Kotahena Temple and was already known to young David as he used\nto pass the Kotahena Temple on his way to and from St. Thomas College, Mutual. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ven. Gunananda Thera led the Buddhist\nside in debates that took place between the Buddhists and the Christians in\nBaddegama, Udanwita, Waragoda, Liyanagemulla, Gampola, and in the most famous\nof the debates in Panadura. These debates led to a Buddhist revival in Sri\nLanka. It was after reading a pamphlet on the debates published in the United\nStates, that Henry Steel Olcott arrived in Sri Lanka in 1880.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cruelty to animals<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The young David attended several\nschools including St. Thomas, St. Benedicts, Christian College, Kotte and\nColombo Academy (later known as Royal College). The religious atmosphere in\nthese schools was alien to him but nothing disturbed him more than to see the\nboarding master of the school in Kotte taking delight in shooting the small\nbirds which alighted on the trees. These revolting practices were against the\nBuddhist teachings of Metta and Karuna (loving \u2013 kindness and compassion) and\nreverence for life of all sentient beings which he had learned in his own home\nand young David, now beginning to think independently, could not stomach or\nreconcile himself with such cruel and heartless behavior of his Christian\nteachers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is reported that an incident which\noccurred during this period must have made his sensitive mind more keenly aware\nthan ever of the gulf which lay between Christian missionary fanaticism of his\nteachers on the one hand and Buddhist wisdom and tolerance that has been\ninculcated in him from his childhood on the other, and undoubtedly added fresh\nfuel to the already festering fires of revolt. It is said that one Sunday when\nyoung David was quietly reading a pamphlet on the Four Noble Truths the same\nmaster had come up to him and, true to missionary zeal, had demanded the\noffending work from him and had it thrown out of the room.\n    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arrival of Henry Olcott<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These incidents contributed heavily\nin influencing young David to walk on a path that was different to that of his\npeers and school mates. The arrival of Henry Steel Olcott in Colombo in 1880\nhad a pivotal impact on David\u2019s life. He was one of those who attended Olcott\u2019s\nfirst public lecture aged 16. His grandfather became the first President of the\nBuddhist Theosophical Society that Olcott founded and in 1884 at the age of 20\nDavid himself became a member of the BTS. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was\naround this time that he believed, like the majority of Sinhala Buddhists, that\nthe interests of Buddhism and the interests of the Theosophical Society were\nidentical or convergent.  He decided to devote all his time to the welfare\nof the Sasana, He renounced the name \u2018 David\u2019 and adopted the \u2018 Dharmapala\u2019. He\naccompanied Olcott and Madame Blavatsky on a trip to India where he saw the\nplight of the Maha Bodhi Temple at Buddha Gaya. His subsequent trips to Japan\nin the company of Olcott, the establishment of the Maha Bodhi Society in\nColombo in 1891 dedicated towards re-gaining control of the Maha Bodhi Temple,\nattendance at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893 constitute a\ninspiring life story that has become an integral part of the national story of\nSri Lanka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buddhist\nNationalism<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dharmapala\u2019s  entry to public\nlife was via the call to serve the cause of Buddhism pure and simple, But then\nhe realized as wisdom and maturity dawned on him later in his life that\nBuddhism cannot and will not survive in any form unless there is a protective\nlayer \u2013 Buddhist nationalism.  In espousing the cause of freedom from\ncolonial yoke, and then calling on his people to awaken and lift themselves\nfrom slumber and moribund state ( \u2018Sinhalayan Nagitiyaw\u2019 \u2013 speech given in\n1926)  he touched a chord lying deep in the collective sub \u2013 conscious of\nthe Sinhala Buddhists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anagarika Dharmapala unleashed forces\nthat to this day reverberate not only in his country of birth but offshore as\nwell. He was born to an incipient Buddhist Revival movement in the middle of\nthe 19th<\/sup> Century but then found himself championing it in the first\nhalf of the 20th<\/sup> Century to the great delight of Buddhists everywhere.\nThe Buddhist Revival movements in India, Bangladesh, Burma, Thailand owe a\ngreat deal to the pioneering efforts of Anagarika Dharmapala. The Buddhist\nnationalist movements in Sri Lanka of Brahmachari Walisinghe Harischandra,\nSinhala Maha Sabha of S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, the Buddhist Revolution of 1956\nand the Bauddha Jathika Balavegaya (BJB) of L.H. Mettananda have their genesis\nin the foundation laid by Dharmapala.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

World\u2019s First Global Buddhist\nMissionary<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The appellation that Anagarika\nDharmapala was the world\u2019s first global Buddhist Missionary is resoundingly\nvalid. He was the first Buddhist in the Modern era to propagate Buddhism on\nthree continents: Asia, Europe and North America. Between the years 1891 – 1933,\nAnagarika spent most of his time overseas, zealously engaged in Buddhist\nmissionary work and only periodically returning to his motherland Sri\nLanka.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anagarika was also involved in\nanother gigantic project internationally; to offer Buddhism as an alternate\ncivilizing force to counter the deceitful ‘ White Man’s burden ‘; the so called\ncivilizing mission that was used to legitimize and even defend blatant wrong\ndoing such as the genocides of native people on almost every continent,\nplunder, theft, holocausts that ravaged the world ever since European\nnavigators like Christopher Columbus and Vasco de Gama ‘discovered’ new\nlands, on the ground of ‘ Manifest Destiny’. Europe based religions\ne.g. Christianity, were heavily compromised and their hands stained with blood\nby their close associations of a collaborative nature with the Conquistadors.\nBuddhism was not and Buddhist Civilizations had a relative intrinsic purity\nthat none of the Abrahamic religions and inherently violent Christian and\nIslamic civilizations could match.      <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anagarika Dharmapala’s pioneering\nefforts to spread the Dhamma in both USA and UK have left magnificent edifices\nsuch as the London Vihara and inspired a number of other energetic Buddhist\nworkers of succeeding generations such as Devapriya Valisinha, G.P.\nMalalasekera (founder of the World Fellowship of Buddhists) and Asoka\nWeeraratna (founder of the German Dharmaduta Society, Berlin Vihara (Das\nBuddhistische Haus), Germany, Mitirigala Nissarana Vanaya) to follow suit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 End<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 see also<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s admirable Buddhist missionary\nachievements in the West: Anagarika & Asoka offer role models to emulate<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.sinhalanet.net\/sri-lankas-admirable-buddhist-missionary-achievements-in-the-west-anagarika-asoka-offer-role-models-to-emulate<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
Sri Lanka\u2019s admirable Buddhist missionary achievements in the West: Anagarika & Asoka offer role models to emulate<\/a><\/blockquote>