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Olcott and Dharmapala Revive Buddhism in Sri Lanka Under Colonial Rule

Buddhism

Origin from 1880

The American Theosophical Society founder Henry Steel Olcott arrived in Colombo on 16 May 1880, and three days later he and Helena Blavatsky formally took the Five Precepts at Wijayananda Viharaya in Galle, becoming Buddhists under British colonial Ceylon's own eyes. Olcott organized rather than originated the Sinhalese Buddhist revival already under way: his 1881 Buddhist Catechism, still used in Sri Lanka today, and the network of Buddhist schools the Theosophical Society founded across the 1880s, Ananda College in 1886, Dharmaraja College in 1887, Maliyadeva College in 1888 and Mahinda College in 1892, gave the revival an institutional shape it had lacked under decades of Christian missionary schooling and colonial administration that had marginalized Buddhist education. The young Sinhalese activist Anagarika Dharmapala, drawn into the movement through the Theosophical Society, closed the decade by founding the Maha Bodhi Society in Colombo in 1891, turning the revival's own leadership toward an international campaign and, two years later, toward the same 1893 Chicago Parliament of Religions this atlas's own separate United States arrival event already records him presenting at. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts

Dates

Start Yearthe subject's own account

from 1880 1

End Year

to 1891 2

the subject's own account1891 marks the Maha Bodhi Society's founding, the point this event's own span closes; the Theosophical Society's school-founding work continued at least one year beyond it, into 1892, named in the description rather than compressed out of it.

Statusthe subject's own account

Revived 1

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How Olcott and Dharmapala Revived Buddhism in Sri Lanka Under Colonial Rule

This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.

On 16 May 1880, Henry Steel Olcott, the American co-founder of the Theosophical Society, landed in Colombo, and three days later he and Helena Blavatsky formally took the Five Precepts at Wijayananda Viharaya in Galle, becoming Buddhists under the eyes of British colonial Ceylon.

Olcott did not begin the Sinhalese Buddhist revival himself, but he gave it institutions it had lacked after decades of Christian missionary schooling and colonial administration had pushed Buddhist education to the margins. His 1881 Buddhist Catechism, still used in Sri Lanka today, set out the faith in a form suited to a modern reading public, and the Theosophical Society built a run of Buddhist schools through the decade, Ananda College in 1886, Dharmaraja College in 1887, Maliyadeva College in 1888 and Mahinda College in 1892.

The young Sinhalese activist Anagarika Dharmapala, drawn into the movement through the Theosophical Society, carried the revival further still, founding the Maha Bodhi Society in Colombo in 1891 and turning its leadership toward an international campaign that reached the 1893 Chicago Parliament of Religions two years later. What began as two foreign converts taking Buddhist vows in a colonial port became, within little more than a decade, an organized movement with its own schools, its own catechism and a Sinhalese leader carrying Buddhism onto a world stage.

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Anagarika Dharmapala

This source names Anagarika Dharmapala directly: "The young Sinhalese activist Anagarika Dharmapala, drawn into the movement through the Theosophical Society, closed the decade by founding the Maha Bodhi Society in Colombo in 1891, turning the..."