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Ceylonese roadmap for world Buddhism
By Ven. Dr. Mahinda Deegalle, Sunday, 21 September 2014
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Ceylonese roadmap for world Buddhism
Ceylonese roadmap for world Buddhism
Ceylonese roadmap for world Buddhism
Buddhist Visionary Anagarika Dharmapala
September 17 marked the 150th birth anniversary of Buddhist Visionary Anagarika Dharmapala
The young Anagarika Dharmapala (1864-1933) had barely reached thirty years when he received a prestigious invitation to address the World’s Parliament of Religions, the first of its kind in the modern world, held in the city of Chicago with grand festivities in summer 1893. At that time, colonial Ceylon was at its peak in terms of internal, domestic and local initiatives undertaken in reviving degenerated forms of Buddhist practices and institutions affected severely under the British colonial regime and Protestant Christian hegemony. On the basis of intimate and personal experiences of religious and imperialist encounters in colonial Ceylon, Dharmapala critiqued Christian missionary activities that he witnessed personally in Ceylon to the surprise of many who attended the international religious congress. In his articulations in public both in print and dialogue as explained below, Dharmapala appeared argumentative and his persistent plea to evangelical groups who gathered at the congress drew attention. The centenary celebration of the first World’s Parliament of Religions was also held in Chicago in summer 1993.
It is appropriate to reflect upon the legacy of Dharmapala after a century of growth and spread of Buddhism in Sri Lanka as well as abroad. Dharmapala’s heroic role in shaping and envisioning the spread of Theravāda Buddhism in the United Kingdom became very clear with mushrooming of a dozen of Theravāda Buddhist temples of Sri Lankan origin in the UK alone. Dharmapala’s pioneering contribution to the spread of Theravāda Buddhism in Europe and North America need to be more acknowledged and highlighted to balance out the frequent characterization of Dharmapala as a racist and hardcore nationalist in the media as well as in some academic circles. This article will examine the role of Dharmapala as a visionary Buddhist leader in light of his public international appearances in North America, England and briefly India. This study has not taken into account Dharmapala’s work in Mahayana Buddhist countries in East Asia such as Japan (Jayawardana 2002) and South and Southeast Asian countries. Special focus here is on the events of the World’s Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893 and Dharmapala’s eagerness in establishing the London Buddhist Vihāra in the early part of the twentieth century.
International fame
Dharmapala became known internationally because of several social, religious and historical factors both in colonial Ceylon and India. Under the British colonial domination and governance, when Buddhism was conceived as having an inferior religious position in Ceylon, Dharmapala worked actively for the renewal and restoration of Buddhist values and its cultural heritage. In the post-Independent Sri Lanka, many Buddhists perceive that Buddhism as an institution suffered from economic, political, and religious injustices of colonial regime at the end of the nineteenth century. During the colonial period, Christian churches of Ceylon, having had financial and moral support of the colonial administration, are alleged today having used ‘unethical’ and fraudulent methods to convert both Buddhists and Hindus. Many traditional Buddhists and Hindus became Christians, at least nominally, because it was one of the most effective means of securing better education, employment opportunities and social privileges.
In this colonial historical context, Dharmapala was born to a relatively wealthy Sinhala aristocratic family in urban Colombo. This social and political environment may have played an important role in shaping the life and work of Dharmapala. In the face of adverse social, political, and religious challenges, Dharmapala was determined to implement a reactivist agenda to speed up the revival and progress of Buddhism. Dharmapala worked actively to free Buddhists from hackles of colonial powers and other contemporary obstacles. He utilized his privileged position in the Sri Lankan society and English education that he received as a member of upper class society combined with his family wealth to renew the lives of Buddhists and work for Buddhist causes.
When Dharmapala visited Buddhagaya, the site of the Buddha’s awakening; he witnessed the appalling conditions of Buddhism in India. Dharmapala was determined to restore Buddhism in its birthplace. Dharmapala’s accounts of his own austere life of spending nights in a hole of a tree at Saranath further conveys how determined was his resolution to dedicate his life for Buddhist causes. After returning from India, his major contribution for Indian Buddhism began with the establishment of Maha Bodhi Society in Colombo on May 31, 1891 to implement a restoration project of Buddhist sites in India including Buddhagaya and Saranath.
In his projects of restoration of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and India Dharmapala was not alone. Both the Buddhist clergy headed by Venerable Hikkaduwe Sumangala (1827–1911) and the laity in urban centers of coastal areas of Ceylon supported his programs. Both Ven. Sumangala and Ven. Gunananda (1823–1890) inspired the young Dharmapala. In all projects of Buddhist renewal, the inter-religious debate that took place in Panadura (1873) between Ven. M. Gunananda and Protestant Christian clergy of local origin marked a historical mile-stone in contested religious interactions between Buddhists and Christians in colonial Ceylon (Deegalle 2011).
Prominent Theosophists Colonel Henry Olcott (1832-1907) and Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891) supported Dharmapala’s renewal projects by encouraging him and providing guidance. These local support networks that began well before Dharmapala’s birth and international influences brought about in the local scene by Theosophists from the 1880s shaped well Dharmapala’s motives, inspirations and activism to a significant degree leading to unparalleled leadership for Buddhist causes in the twentieth century.
Outspoken
Anagarika Dharmapala became internationally known as the most effective, leading Buddhist activist in the early part of twentieth century because of two crucial factors: first, because of Dharmapala’s active involvement in the restoration efforts of the Maha Bodhi Temple for which he established the Maha Bodhi Society in 1891 which extended later to England to establish the London Buddhist Vihara; second, because of his outstanding performance at the World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893 he was able to establish an international profile; his bold and straight forward, convincing presentations attracted many admirers from audience that resulted in travels to Harvard University and other important places in the United States.
In evaluating the outstanding performance of Dharmapala as the emerging Sri Lankan Buddhist leader, the World’s Parliament of Religions is the most crucial event. The first World’s Parliament of Religions was held for 17 days (September 11 to 27, 1893) in the Columbus Hall of the Art Institute of Chicago. It was organized as a part of the Columbian Exposition (World’s Fair) that commemorated the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Columbus to America. It was very successful since it attracted more than 4,000 people. Participants included Buddhists, Hindus, Confucians, Zoroastrians, Muslims, Jews, Protestant Christians, Catholics, humanists and scientists. Blacks and women also actively participated in the Parliament. Among the four hundred paper presentations, women presented about 10 percent of the papers. Women’s participation in the Parliament marked a significant growth in the status of women and their role in religion in the public realm of American society at the latter part of the nineteenth century.
Dharmapala was the only Sri Lankan Theravāda Buddhist representative present at the 1893 Parliament of World Religions. Dharmapala was an important representative in the Parliament not only because he was a Buddhist but also because he was one of the few members who represented Eastern Religions. From India, there were 18 members including Swami Vivekananda. Japan had sent 17 member delegation consisted of both Buddhists and Shintoists. There were also members from Islam, and Judaism. On the whole, the majority of the participants in the Parliament were Protestant Christians. For example, Christians delivered a three-fourth of the Parliament paper presentations. The Parliament was a great opportunity for the representatives of Eastern religions to express their views to a larger international audience. In the nineteenth century, this wide representation itself was very important, since it was the first time in human history that all these diverse religious groups met on one platform on an equal basis to speak about their respective religions and also to learn about each other’s faiths.
(Ven. Dr. Mahinda Deegalle is NEH Professor of Humanities at the Department of Religion at Colgate University, New York, USA and Reader in Religions, Philosophies and Ethics at Bath Spa University, UK.)
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Continued from Sep 21
In the first World’s Parliament of Religions (1893), Dharmapala presented two papers: ‘The World’s Debt to Buddha’ (Barrows 1893: 862-880), and ‘Points of Resemblance and Difference between Buddhism and Christianity’ (Barrows 1893: 1288-1290). Dharmapala was very critical of missionary efforts in Asia, having experienced them personally in Ceylon. Boldly criticizing missionary activities, Dharmapala urged:
“You must send men full of unselfishness. They must have a spirit of self-sacrifice, a spirit of charity, [and] a spirit of tolerance. We want the lowly and meek and gentle teachings of Christ, not because we do not have them now, but we want more of them. The missionaries sent to Ceylon, China or Burma, as a rule, have not the tolerance that we need. The missionary is intolerant; he is selfish. Why do not the natives mix with him? Because he has not the tolerance and unselfishness he should have. Who are his converts? They are all men of low type. Seeing the selfishness and intolerance of the missionary not an intelligent woman/man will accept Christianity. Buddhism had its missionaries before Christianity was preached.
This assertion of an existing, thriving living Buddhist tradition with a strong yet tolerant urge to promote Buddhism among a variety of audiences, cumulatively known as a dhammaduta (messenger of dhamma) needs to be fully acknowledged in the comparative understanding of missionary zeal in world’s religions. See Deegalle (2014: 67-73) for an analysis of this missionary ethos in relation to the issue of religious conversion.
It conquered all Asia and made the Mongolians mild. But the influence of western civilization is undoing the work. It is left for you, this younger family of European nations, to change this. I warn you that if you want to establish Christianity in the East it can only be done on the principles of Christ’s love and meekness. Let the missionary study all the religions; let them be a type of meekness and lowliness and they will find a welcome in all lands.” (Barrows 1893: 1093).
In contrast to intolerance of Christian missionaries, Dharmapala emphasized Buddhist tolerance:
“Actuated by the spirit of compassion, the disciples of Buddha have ever been in the fore-front of missionary propaganda. The whole of Asia was brought under the influence of the Buddha’s law. Never was the religion propagated by force, not a drop of blood has ever been spilt in the name of Buddha. The shrines of Sakya Muni are stainless.” (Barrows 1893: 872).
In every sense of the word, Dharmapala was argumentative and confrontational in the World’s Parliament of Religions at Chicago. He wanted to show special characteristics that were inherent in Buddhism and those which were lacking in other religious traditions. Dharmapala was one of the champions in showing to the world that Buddhist teachings are in harmony with modern scientific discoveries and that Buddhism had the ability to face modern challenges and critical issues.
In his speech ‘The World’s Debt to Buddha’, Dharmapala presented a basic outline of Buddhism relating it with science and philosophy:
“Buddhism is a scientific religion, inasmuch as it earnestly enjoins that nothing whatever be accepted on faith. Buddha has said that nothing should be believed merely because it is said. Buddhism is tantamount to a knowledge of other sciences.” (Barrows 1893: 878)
In his speech, Dharmapala maintained that Buddhism was and is an ethical system aimed at purifying human beings (Barrows 1893: 866). He also asserted the rational aspects in Buddhist teachings. From this assumption, he proceeded to attack theism. He maintained that the Buddha refused the concept of ‘creator’ by accepting ‘the doctrine of evolution’ (anicca) and the law of cause and effect. The minor gods who are mentioned in Buddhist suttas, according to him, are subject to the law of cause and effect. He thought the supreme god (Brahma) “is all love, all merciful, [and] all gentle.” He further affirmed that there was no difference between a perfect man and the supreme god (Barrows 1893: 868). Dharmapala viewed Buddhism as a “pure religion recognizing no Deity” (Barrows 1893: 878).
At the end of this Parliament both Dharmapala and Vivekananda traveled in the United States, delivering lectures on their respective religious traditions. At this time, CTS Strauss declared himself to be a Buddhist by receiving three-fold refuges (P. tisarana) and the five precepts (P. pañca sila) from Dharmapala. Strauss became perhaps the first American Buddhist converted to the tradition. From the time of this Parliament, major Buddhist centers started to appear in North America. For instance, the Japanese Buddhist Mission was started in San Francisco at this time. In 1960, the first Sri Lankan Buddhist temple in North America was established in Washington D.C.
At present, there are over a dozen of Sri Lankan Buddhist temples and thousands of other Buddhist organizations in North America. During the last three decades, the number of Buddhist centers has increased rapidly. There are cases where even a few Christian churches have been transformed into Buddhist temples in surrounding areas of Chicago. The World’s Parliament of Religions was a landmark event that enabled the growth of the discipline of the study of religions in North America. This crucial event introduced both Buddhism and Hinduism to North America. By 1893, only a very tiny minority of Americans knew even basic things of either Buddhism or Hinduism. Thus the development of the study of Eastern religions in North America can be traced to the time of the World’s Parliament of Religions. Since then, many American scholars have started to teach both Buddhism and Hinduism in American colleges and universities.
Major American research universities like Harvard, Columbia and Yale, started new programs that included teaching Sanskrit and Buddhism. During the last ten decades, the study of Buddhism as a scholarly discipline has grown at an unprecedented speed. There are many Buddhist Studies programs all over North America that study all forms of Buddhism. Many Comparative and History of Religions programs strongly emphasize the presence of Buddhist tradition in their programs.
Today, many American and European universities have designed degree programs in which undergraduates study Buddhism as a part of the degree program at least in introductory level. Each year a large number of books are published and a substantial number of PhD dissertations are completed in all areas of Buddhist Studies. The graduate programs emphasize learning Buddhism, related scriptural languages such as Pali, Sanskrit and Tibetan and even some modern languages such as Sinhala.
All these positive developments in the study of religion in general and in the study of Buddhism specifically came into being after the World’s Parliament of Religions. Dharmapala’s outstanding performance in the World’s Parliament of Religions left a significant impression on participants. His charismatic leadership placed a permanent mark in history of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, India and UK.
(Ven. Dr. Mahinda Deegalle is NEH Professor of Humanities at the Department of Religion at Colgate University, New York, USA and Reader in Religions, Philosophies and Ethics at Bath Spa University, UK.)
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September 17 marked the 150th birth anniversary of Buddhist Visionary Anagarika Dharmapala
The young Anagarika Dharmapala (1864-1933) had barely reached thirty
years when he received a prestigious invitation to address the World’s
Parliament of Religions, the first of its kind in the modern world, held
in the city of Chicago with grand festivities in summer 1893. At that
time, colonial Ceylon was at its peak in terms of internal, domestic and
local initiatives undertaken in reviving degenerated forms of Buddhist
practices and institutions affected severely under the British colonial
regime and Protestant Christian hegemony. On the basis of intimate and
personal experiences of religious and imperialist encounters in colonial
Ceylon, Dharmapala critiqued Christian missionary activities that he
witnessed personally in Ceylon to the surprise of many who attended the
international religious congress. In his articulations in public both in
print and dialogue as explained below, Dharmapala appeared
argumentative and his persistent plea to evangelical groups who gathered
at the congress drew attention. The centenary celebration of the first
World’s Parliament of Religions was also held in Chicago in summer 1993.
It is appropriate to reflect upon the legacy of Dharmapala after a
century of growth and spread of Buddhism in Sri Lanka as well as abroad.
Dharmapala’s heroic role in shaping and envisioning the spread of
Theravāda Buddhism in the United Kingdom became very clear with
mushrooming of a dozen of Theravāda Buddhist temples of Sri Lankan
origin in the UK alone. Dharmapala’s pioneering contribution to the
spread of Theravāda Buddhism in Europe and North America need to be
more acknowledged and highlighted to balance out the frequent
characterization of Dharmapala as a racist and hardcore nationalist in
the media as well as in some academic circles. This article will examine
the role of Dharmapala as a visionary Buddhist leader in light of his
public international appearances in North America, England and briefly
India. This study has not taken into account Dharmapala’s work in
Mahayana Buddhist countries in East Asia such as Japan (Jayawardana
2002) and South and Southeast Asian countries. Special focus here is on
the events of the World’s Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in
1893 and Dharmapala’s eagerness in establishing the London Buddhist
Vihāra in the early part of the twentieth century.
International fame
Dharmapala became known internationally because of several social,
religious and historical factors both in colonial Ceylon and India.
Under the British colonial domination and governance, when Buddhism was
conceived as having an inferior religious position in Ceylon, Dharmapala
worked actively for the renewal and restoration of Buddhist values and
its cultural heritage. In the post-Independent Sri Lanka, many Buddhists
perceive that Buddhism as an institution suffered from economic,
political, and religious injustices of colonial regime at the end of the
nineteenth century. During the colonial period, Christian churches of
Ceylon, having had financial and moral support of the colonial
administration, are alleged today having used ‘unethical’ and fraudulent
methods to convert both Buddhists and Hindus. Many traditional
Buddhists and Hindus became Christians, at least nominally, because it
was one of the most effective means of securing better education,
employment opportunities and social privileges.
In this colonial historical context, Dharmapala was born to a
relatively wealthy Sinhala aristocratic family in urban Colombo. This
social and political environment may have played an important role in
shaping the life and work of Dharmapala. In the face of adverse social,
political, and religious challenges, Dharmapala was determined to
implement a reactivist agenda to speed up the revival and progress of
Buddhism. Dharmapala worked actively to free Buddhists from hackles of
colonial powers and other contemporary obstacles. He utilized his
privileged position in the Sri Lankan society and English education that
he received as a member of upper class society combined with his family
wealth to renew the lives of Buddhists and work for Buddhist causes.
When Dharmapala visited Buddhagaya, the site of the Buddha’s
awakening; he witnessed the appalling conditions of Buddhism in India.
Dharmapala was determined to restore Buddhism in its birthplace.
Dharmapala’s accounts of his own austere life of spending nights in a
hole of a tree at Saranath further conveys how determined was his
resolution to dedicate his life for Buddhist causes. After returning
from India, his major contribution for Indian Buddhism began with the
establishment of Maha Bodhi Society in Colombo on May 31, 1891 to
implement a restoration project of Buddhist sites in India including
Buddhagaya and Saranath.
In his projects of restoration of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and India
Dharmapala was not alone. Both the Buddhist clergy headed by Venerable
Hikkaduwe Sumangala (1827–1911) and the laity in urban centers of
coastal areas of Ceylon supported his programs. Both Ven. Sumangala and
Ven. Gunananda (1823–1890) inspired the young Dharmapala. In all
projects of Buddhist renewal, the inter-religious debate that took place
in Panadura (1873) between Ven. M. Gunananda and Protestant Christian
clergy of local origin marked a historical mile-stone in contested
religious interactions between Buddhists and Christians in colonial
Ceylon (Deegalle 2011).
Prominent Theosophists Colonel Henry Olcott (1832-1907) and Madame
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891) supported Dharmapala’s renewal
projects by encouraging him and providing guidance. These local support
networks that began well before Dharmapala’s birth and international
influences brought about in the local scene by Theosophists from the
1880s shaped well Dharmapala’s motives, inspirations and activism to a
significant degree leading to unparalleled leadership for Buddhist
causes in the twentieth century.
Outspoken
Anagarika Dharmapala became internationally known as the most
effective, leading Buddhist activist in the early part of twentieth
century because of two crucial factors: first, because of Dharmapala’s
active involvement in the restoration efforts of the Maha Bodhi Temple
for which he established the Maha Bodhi Society in 1891 which extended
later to England to establish the London Buddhist Vihara; second,
because of his outstanding performance at the World’s Parliament of
Religions in Chicago in 1893 he was able to establish an international
profile; his bold and straight forward, convincing presentations
attracted many admirers from audience that resulted in travels to
Harvard University and other important places in the United States.
In evaluating the outstanding performance of Dharmapala as the
emerging Sri Lankan Buddhist leader, the World’s Parliament of Religions
is the most crucial event. The first World’s Parliament of Religions
was held for 17 days (September 11 to 27, 1893) in the Columbus Hall of
the Art Institute of Chicago. It was organized as a part of the
Columbian Exposition (World’s Fair) that commemorated the 400th
anniversary of the arrival of Columbus to America. It was very
successful since it attracted more than 4,000 people. Participants
included Buddhists, Hindus, Confucians, Zoroastrians, Muslims, Jews,
Protestant Christians, Catholics, humanists and scientists. Blacks and
women also actively participated in the Parliament. Among the four
hundred paper presentations, women presented about 10 percent of the
papers. Women’s participation in the Parliament marked a significant
growth in the status of women and their role in religion in the public
realm of American society at the latter part of the nineteenth century.
Dharmapala was the only Sri Lankan Theravāda Buddhist representative
present at the 1893 Parliament of World Religions. Dharmapala was an
important representative in the Parliament not only because he was a
Buddhist but also because he was one of the few members who represented
Eastern Religions. From India, there were 18 members including Swami
Vivekananda. Japan had sent 17 member delegation consisted of both
Buddhists and Shintoists. There were also members from Islam, and
Judaism. On the whole, the majority of the participants in the
Parliament were Protestant Christians. For example, Christians delivered
a three-fourth of the Parliament paper presentations. The Parliament
was a great opportunity for the representatives of Eastern religions to
express their views to a larger international audience. In the
nineteenth century, this wide representation itself was very important,
since it was the first time in human history that all these diverse
religious groups met on one platform on an equal basis to speak about
their respective religions and also to learn about each other’s faiths.
(Ven.
Dr. Mahinda Deegalle is NEH Professor of Humanities at the Department
of Religion at Colgate University, New York, USA and Reader in
Religions, Philosophies and Ethics at Bath Spa University, UK.)
-
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