Materialien zum Neobuddhismus

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Wilhelm II.: "Völker Europas, wahrt Eure heiligsten Güter!"

5. Buddhismus in Großbritannien

1. Bis 1959


von Alois Payer

mailto: payer@payer.de


Zitierweise / cite as:

Payer, Alois <1944 - >: Materialien zum Neobuddhismus.  --   5. Buddhismus in Großbritannien. -- 1. Bis 1959. -- Fassung vom 2005-07-09. -- URL: http://www.payer.de/neobuddhismus/neobud05011.htm . -- [Stichwort].

Erstmals publiziert: 1996-06-05

Überarbeitungen: 2005-07-09 [Ergänzungen]; 2005-06-16 [Ergänzungen]; 2005-06-09 [Ergänzungen]; 2005-06-06 [Ergänzungen]; 2005-05-13 [Ergänzungen]; 2005-05-09 [überarbeitet]; 2005-05-05 [überarbeitet]; 2005-04-26 [überarbeitet]; 2003-07-11 [stark überarbeitet und erweitert]

Anlass: Lehrveranstaltung Neobuddhismus, Univ. Tübingen, SS 1987, SS 2003, SS 2005

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Dieser Text ist Teil der Abteilung Buddhismus von Tüpfli's Global Village Library


0. Übersicht



1. Die frühe Entwicklung in Großbritannien


Großbritannien als Kolonialmacht in zwei buddhistischen Ländern (Ceylon und Birma) sowie mit imperialistischem Interesse an Nepal sowie Tibet ist dementsprechend für die Erweiterung der Kenntnisse im Westen über den Buddhismus von zentraler Bedeutung.

1784


Abb.: Sir William Jones

Sir William Jones (1746-1794) gründet in Calcutta  The Asiatick [!] Society [Webpräsenz: http://www.indev.nic.in/asiatic/. -- Zugriff am 2003-06-13]. Die Veröffentlichungen dieser Gesellschaft sind bahnbrechend im ganzen Bereich der Indienkunde.

"Jones, Sir William, engl. Orientalist, geb. 28. Sept. 1746 in London, gest. 27. April 1794 in Kalkutta, studierte in Oxford die Rechte, erlernte daneben Arabisch und Persisch und ward 1765 Erzieher des Grafen Spencer. 1783 ungeachtet seines jugendlichen Alters zum Oberrichter von Bengalen ernannt, studierte er in Kalkutta die Sanskritsprache und benutzte seine einflussreiche Stellung dazu, um dort 1784 die Asiatische Gesellschaft ins Leben zu rufen, deren Präsident er lebenslang blieb. In der von ihr herausgegebenen Zeitschrift »Asiatic Researches« und in seinem Werk »Asiatic miscellanies« (Kalkutta 1788) veröffentlichte er zahlreiche Proben arabischer, persischer, türkischer und indischer Dichtungen und Beiträge zur orientalischen Geschichte und Völkerkunde; am bekanntesten aber machte er sich durch seine meisterhafte Übertragung von Kalidasas Drama »Sakuntalâ« (das. 1789; deutsch von G. Forster, 1791) und »Manus Gesetzbuch« (das. 1794). J. war auch der erste, der den Druck eines Sanskritwerkes veranstaltete (»Ritusamhâra«, Kalk. 1792), und einer der ersten, die auf die Verwandtschaft der Sprache und Mythologie der Inder mit derjenigen der europäischen Kulturvölker aufmerksam wurden. Seine Schriften erschienen gesammelt London 1799, 6 Bde.; neue Ausgabe 1807, 13 Bde. Die Ostindische Handelskompanie ließ ihm als Übersetzer des »Manu« ein Denkmal in der Paulskirche zu London setzen. Vgl. Teignmouth, Memoirs of the life of Sir W. J. (Lond. 1804; neue vermehrte Ausg. von Wilks, 1838, 2 Bde.)."

[Quelle: Meyers großes Konversations-Lexikon. -- DVD-ROM-Ausg. Faksimile und Volltext der 6. Aufl. 1905-1909. -- Berlin : Directmedia Publ. --2003. -- 1 DVD-ROM. -- (Digitale Bibliothek ; 100). -- ISBN 3-89853-200-3. -- s.v.]

1796

Ceylon mit Ausnahme des Hochlands von Kandy wird britische Kolonie

1815

Kandy -- und damit ganz Ceylon --  wird britische Kolonie

1824 bis 1826

Aus dem Streit über territoriale Ansprüche in Assam entsteht der erste britisch-birmanische Krieg. Großbritannien siegt im Bündnis mit Siam (heute: Thailand). Birma muss Assam, Manipur, Arakan und Tenasserim an die Briten abtreten.

1824 bis 1843

Brian Houghton Hodgson (1800 - 1894), Beamter des British Government, sammelt in Nepal eine große Anzahl von Handschriften (Sanskrit und Tibetisch) und sendet sie an verschiedene Bibliotheken, so

Einer der für die Buddhismusrezeption wichtigsten Übersetzer solcher Handschriften ist der Franzose Eugene Burnouf (1801 - 1852).

1830 veröffentlicht Hodgson im Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Sketch of Buddhism from the Buddhist Scriptures of Nepal.

 
Abb.: B. H. Hodgson

"Brian Houghton Hodgson : 1800 - 1894

Administrator, ethnologist and naturalist, Brian Houghton Hodgson was born on February 1, 1800 at Lower Beech, Prestbury, Chesire, to a family of English country gentlemen, Brian Houghton Hodgson joined the British East India Company in 1816 having been accepted at Haileybury College from where he passed out with merit, a medalist in the Classics, a prize in Bengali, a prize in Political Economy, and head of his term in 1817. He went out to India in 1818 where he began his career in the Kumaon districts as an Assistant Commissioner. Two years later in 1820, he was reassigned to Nepal as the assistant to the Resident.

In 1823, although he obtained an under-secretaryship in the foreign department at Calcutta that would allow the possibility of a better advancement in his career, the heat and humidity of the plains did not suit his frail health so by 1824 he was back in Nepal. There onwards, the better part of his life was spent the pursuit of Himalayan studies, career-wise and otherwise.

 
He was particularly devoted to the collection of Sanskrit manuscripts relating to Buddhism but at the same time was also a passionate naturalist. This other interest led to the study and collection of the natural history specimen. His investigations of the ethnology of the aboriginal tribes were especially important and the research prompted him to acquire valuable antiquities of the region. By 1839, he had contributed eighty-nine papers to the Asiatic Society of Bengal.
 
In 1833 he became Resident in Nepal, and passed many stormy years in conflict with the court of the Rana maharajas to which he was accredited. Nevertheless, he succeeded in concluding a satisfactory treaty in 1839; but in 1842 his policy, which involved an imperious attitude towards the native government, was upset by the interference of Lord Ellenborough, anxious to avoid trouble in Nepal during the conflict in Afghanistan. Hodgson took upon himself to disobey his instructions, a breach of discipline justified to his own mind by his superior knowledge of the situation, but which the governor general could hardly be expected to overlook. He was in due time recalled, and resigned the service in 1843. In 1845 he returned to India and settled at Darjeeling, where he devoted himself entirely to his favourite pursuits, becoming among the greatest authorities on the Buddhist religion and the flora of the Himalayas.
 
It was he who early suggested the recruiting of Gurkhas for the Indian army, and who influenced Maharaja Jung Bahadur Rana to lend his assistance to the British during the mutiny in 1857. In 1858 he returned to England, and lived successively in Cheshire and Gloucestershire, occupied with his studies to the last. He died at his home in Alderley Grange, in the Cotswold Hills on May 23, 1894.
 
No man has done so much to throw light on Buddhism as it existed. His collections of Sanskrit manuscripts, presented to the East India Office, and of natural history, presented to the British Museum, are unique. Altogether, he wrote 184 philological and ethnological and 127 scientific papers, as well as some valuable pamphlets on native education, in which he took great interest. His principal work, Illustrations of the Literature and Religion of Buddhists (1841), was republished with the most important of his other writings in 1872 - 1880. His biography was written by Sir W. W. Hunter in 1896."

[Quelle: http://www.questhimalaya.com/qh_dq_hodgson.htm. -- Zugriff am 2003-05-13]

"While George Tumour pursued his Pali studies at one end of the subcontinent, Brian Houghton Hodgson was following his own wider course of scholarship at the other. Unlike Turnour, with his aristocratic background, Hodgson was a grammar-school boy from Macclesfield whose father was a local banker fallen on hard times. One of his father's friends was, however, influential enough to be able to nominate him for a post in the Company, and Hodgson was duly groomed for the Indian Civil Service, first at the EICo's college at Haileybury and then at Fort William College in Calcutta. Within months of his arrival in Bengal Hodgson's health broke down. Had he stayed in the plains he would almost certainly have joined the scores of young chancers buried in South Park Cemetery, but by a stroke of luck one of only two civil appointments in the Himalayan foothills fell vacant and he was made assistant to the Commissioner of Kumaon.

Kumaon had come under British rule at the conclusion of the Nepal War in 1815 — the inevitable outcome of the expansionist policies of both the EICo and the Gorkha rulers of Kathmandu. The losers were forced to relinquish some of their recent gains to the victors and to accept a permanent British Resident in Kathmandu, a post filled initially by The Honourable Edward Gardner. In 1820 Gardner was joined by Brian Hodgson, who became his political assistant and secretary. Apart from a spell in the Political Department in Calcutta in 1823, when his frail constitution once again let him down, Hodgson remained in Nepal until 1846, from 1833 onwards as Resident. In social and career terms this was the ultimate backwater, but Hodgson was more than happy to stay put. Sure-footed diplomacy was called for in calming the Nepalese court's fears over the EICo's imperial ambitions while at the same steering clear of the many court factions vying for power, but even so he had plenty of time to pursue his own wide-ranging interests, all stemming from an insatiable curiosity about the country in which fate had placed him. What was by Hodgson's own admission 'foreign to my pursuits' was the study of Buddhism; nevertheless, 'my respect for science in general led me cheerfully to avail myself of the opportunity afforded, by my residence in a Bauddha country, for collecting and transmitting to Calcutta the materials for such investigation'. His initial aim, then
— simply to gather documentary material on the subject for others to study — led him indirectly to 'an old Bauddha residing in the city of Patan', one of the three principal cities in the Kathmandu Valley. Because of the continuing restrictions placed on British diplomats by the Nepalese Government, together with what Hodgson describes as the jealousy of the people in regard to any profanation of their sacred things by an European', he had to rely on a Nepalese member of his staff to act as a go-between. That first contact eventually supplied a list of Buddhist scriptures and then, as relations further improved, an offer from the 'old Bauddha' to supply the texts themselves: 'His list gradually enlarged as his confidence increased; and at length, chiefly through his kindness, and his influence with his brethren in the Bauddha faith, I was able to procure and transmit to Calcutta a large collection of important Bauddha scriptures.'

Between about 1820 and 1823 Hodgson sent no fewer than 218 Sanskrit texts to the Asiatic Society, where they were acknowledged by the Society's Secretary, Dr Horace Hayman Wilson, and then ignored. More donations of manuscripts followed, including two complete sets of the Tibetan canon of Buddhist literature known as the Kanjur or 'translation of the commandments of the Buddha'. A third set, together with a large number of Sanskrit manuscripts, Hodgson sent at his own expense to the Collège de France in Paris. His compatriots responded with indifference; the French made him a member of the Legion d'honneur and struck a gold medal in his honour.

Hodgson's relations with the Buddhist from Patan, Amrita Nanda Bandya — 'the most learned Buddhist then, or now, living in this country' - developed into an abiding friendship. In 1827 he was able to persuade the Nepalese authorities to allow the old man to visit him at the British Residency, where the two spent many hours closeted together. The first fruit of this duologue was a set of written answers in reply to a list of questions. Question 8, for example, asked: 'What is the reason for Buddha being represented with curled locks?' Answer: Tn the limbs and organs we discriminate thirty-two points of beauty, such as expansion of forehead, blackness of the eyes, roundness of the head, elevation of the nose, and archedness of the eyebrows; so also the having curled locks is one of the points of beauty and there is no other reason.' Question 12 asked for an explanation of the differences between the Buddhism practised by the Newars of Kathmandu Valley and that followed by the lamas of Tibet, and produced a curious answer that can be seen as an allegorical explanation of the manner in which the Buddhism practised in the Kathmandu Valley had been modified by the Hindu revival in India initiated by the ninth-century Brahmin reformer Sankaracharya:

The Lamas [of Tibet] . . . carry their orthodoxy to a greater extent than we do [in Nepal] . . . the Buddhatnamargi practice of Bhote [Tibet] is purer, and its scriptures more numerous, than ours . . . Insomuch, that it is said, that Sankara Acharya, SivaMargi, having destroyed the worship of Buddha and the scriptures containing his doctrine in Hindustan, came to Nipal, where he also effected much mischief; and then proceeded to Bhote. There he had a conference with the Grand Lama. The Lama, who never bathes, and after natural evacuations does not use topical ablution, disgusted him to that degree, that he commenced reviling the Lama. The Lama replied, 'I keep my inside pure, although my outside be impure; while you carefully purify yourself without, but are filthy within', and at the same time he drew out his whole entrails and showed them to Sankara; and then replaced them again. He then demanded an answer of Sankara, who, by virtue of his yoga, ascended into the heavens.

This confrontation between the two faiths apparently concluded with the Grand Lama of Tibet pinning the shadow of the Brahmin reformer to the floor with his magic knife and so killing him (a case of wishful thinking: the historical Sankaracharya almost certainly died peacefully in Benares in about 820 CE).

Realising the limitations of this question-and-answer method, Hodgson concluded that he must read the texts himself. Reluctantly he set about learning Sanskrit, but made slow progress, not least because he was now devoting most of his attention — along with much of his official salary — to other far more appealing areas of study. 'He has seldom had a staff of less than two and twenty persons of various tongues and races employed as translators, collectors, artists, shooters and stuffers,' wrote the botanist Dr Joseph Hooker of the Hodgson of later years, adding that it was through this combination of 'unceasing exertions and princely liberality' that he 'unveiled the mysteries of Buddhism, chronicled the affinities, languages, customs and factions of the Himalayan Tribes and completed a natural history of the quadrupeds and birds of these regions'. The first of these accomplishments Hodgson continued to regard as burdensome. 'I pore over the pictorial, sculptural and architectural monuments of Buddhism,' he wrote to his sister in 1833. 'But the past chiefly interests me as far as it can be made to illustrate the present — the origin, genius, character and attainments of the people.' What he did not tell his sister was that his isolation had for some years been lessened by the companionship of a bibi, a Moslem mistress with whom he had formed a 'domestic connection' resulting in two much-loved children. He had also by then established his own menagerie within the grounds of the British Residency, consisting of 'a wild tiger, a wild sheep, a wild goat, four bears, three civets and three score of our beautiful pheasants'."

"Of those three hopefuls born at the turn of the century — James Prinsep, George Tumour and Brian Hodgson — the survivor was the one whose health had always seemed the most precarious. Eschewing liquor and meat, cultivating his own vegetables, preferring the company of his fowls to that of his fellow Englishmen, Brian Hodgson became over the years increasingly aloof and hermit-like — and increasingly crusty. He hung on in his mountain kingdom until 1843, continuing to contribute papers to the RAS and the Asiatic Society of Bengal — in total, more than a hundred and seventy — that became increasingly focused on zoology and anthropology.

In 1837, the year of the great breakthrough, Hodgson at his own cost sent eighty-eight Sanskrit texts to the College de France, where they were eagerly seized upon by Eugene Burnouf. This was followed soon afterwards by his gift of the third of the three sets of the Kanjur that Hodgson had acquired in Kathmandu, which prompted Burnouf to teach himself Tibetan — with the help of Csoma de Koros's Tibetan Grammar and Tibetan — English Dictionary. Burnouf thus became uniquely placed to study three sets of materials in three different languages - Sanskrit, Pali and Tibetan — pertaining to the origins of Buddhism and the development of Buddhist doctrine.

Following Britain's disastrous adventure into Afghanistan, the First Afghan War of 1838 — 41, the agreeable but lightweight Lord Auckland was replaced as Governor-General of India by Lord Ellenborough, erratic and overbearing. Since Auckland was thought to have allowed his judgement to be swayed by headstrong 'politicals', Ellenborough was determined to steer clear of them. His instructions to the British Resident in Kathmandu were to cease his meddling in Nepal's internal affairs. But Hodgson, having lived more than two decades in the country, had come to regard himself as a major player in the machinations that surrounded the Nepalese court. Time and again during the Afghan War he had intervened or intrigued to break up the hard-liners seeking a second war against the EICo, and he now found it impossible to stand on the sidelines. Had he gone quietly, an alternative diplomatic post of equal seniority would have been found for him. But he decided to make what his biographer, Sir William Hunter, described as 'a somewhat needlessly emphatic protest against a piece of unfairness in high places', for which his punishment was the insulting offer of the junior post of assistant commissioner at the fledgling hill-station of Simla.

Hodgson resigned. He pensioned off his bibi, settled an allowance on their offspring, disbanded his menagerie, and sailed for Europe with all his papers, drawings and manuscripts. The bulk of his natural history collection — more than ten thousand specimens and eighteen hundred sheets of drawings of mammals and birds — went to the British Museum (they are now divided between the Natural History Museum and the London Zoological Society). On his way to England Hodgson stopped off in France, where he met Burnouf and made a further donation to the College de France which included sixty paintings and sketches of Kathmandu Valley drawn by his Nepali artist Raj Man Singh (now in the Musée Guimet in Paris; a second set was presented to the RAS).


But Brian Hodgson's long romance with the East was not yet finished. Unable to settle 'at home', after less than a year he sailed back to India to continue his researches as a private individual. He was forbidden to re-enter Nepal, so as the next best thing he found a home for himself at the nearest Indian equivalent to Kathmandu, the sanatorium of Darjeeling. Here he settled down to the life of a near-recluse, now concentrating his efforts on ethnology. In 1853 he again went to England, found a wife, Anne South, and returned with her to Darjeeling until her poor health finally persuaded him to quit India for good in 1858. The couple settled in Gloucestershire, where Hodgson abandoned his Oriental studies for the life of a country gentleman, riding to hounds until he was sixty-eight. Anne Hodgson died in 1868; he married Susan Townsend in 1870 and died in 1894.

Although he was celebrated as a savant in France and Germany, Hodgson's homeland was slow to honour him. The man who has been called 'the father of Indian zoology', the 'founder of the true study of Buddhism', the 'highest living authority on the native races of India', and much else, was not elected a Fellow of the Royal Society until 1877, while Oxford University waited until his eighty-ninth year before conferring an honorary doctorate upon him. The Victorian Establishment could not forgive Brian Hodgson his action in trading what was seen as rightfully belonging to Britain for the boutonnière of a chevalier of the Legion d'honneur (1838), the gold medal of the Société Asiatique (1838) and honorary membership of the Institut de France (1844). In so doing he had enabled a Frenchman to claim the laurels that would have sat better on the brow of an Englishman, preferably that of the greatly esteemed Dr Horace Hayman Wilson — whose hoard of 540 Sanskrit manuscripts became the core of the Bodleian Library's Sanskrit collection after his death in 1860.

The outcome of B. H. Hodgson's collaboration with the enemy was the publication in 1844 of Eugene Burnouf's seminal Introduction à l' histoire du Buddhism Indien, the first comprehensive account of Indian Buddhist history and Buddhist doctrines. Burnouf always acknowledged his great debt to Hodgson as the man who had provided Buddhist studies with its first 'true and most solid base', and with him Buddhist studies became truly international, no longer confined to the Indian subcontinent.

Prior to Burnouf no one had come near to grasping the essentials of Buddhist philosophy, or applied to it the full rigour of European scientific method. Its moralities could be understood and related to, but poor translations combined with religious preconceptions prevented any real understanding of Buddhism's principal concepts. The Dharma was seen as a set of Moses-like commandments rather than the Buddha's teachings as a whole; bodhi was always read as 'wisdom', with Gautama Buddha's 'enlightenment' or 'awakening' at Bodh-Gaya being thought of as some sort of supreme act of will vaguely akin to Christ's crucifixion; and nirvana was most commonly interpreted as 'paradise' rather than the 'extinguishing' of self and an end to the otherwise endless cycle of death and rebirth."

[Allen, Charles <1940 - >: The search for the Buddha : the men who discovered India's lost religion . -- London ; Murray, ©2002. -- ISBN 0-7195-5425-X. -- S. 106 - 109; 196 - 198]

1825 bis 1830, 1835 bis 1847, 1862 bis 1865


Abb.: Robert Spence Hardy
[Bildquelle: http://www.pitts.emory.edu/Archives/text/mss023.html. -- Zugriff am 2005-04-21]

Robert Spence Hardy (1803 - 1868) wirkt als wesleyanischer Missionar in Ceylon. Aufgrund von singhalesischen Quellen veröffentlicht er die sehr informativen und äußerst einflussreichen Werke:

Hardy, R. Spence <1803-1868>: Eastern monachism. -- London : Partridge and Oakey, 1850. --  443 S.

Hardy, R. Spence <1803-1868>: A manual of Budhism, in its modern development / translated from Singhalese mss. by R. Spence Hardy. --
London : Partridge and Oakey, 1853. -- 533 S.

R. Spence Hardy selbst war ein hartgesottener Missionar: 1841 schrieb er:

It was "the bounden duty of the government of the country, from its possession of Truth, to discountenence the sytem [of Buddhism] by every legitimate means." Buddhism had to be to confronted in a struggle that could only end "in the discomfiture of those who have risen against the Lord and his Christ."

[Zitiert in: Allen, Charles <1940 - >: The search for the Buddha : the men who discovered India's lost religion . -- London ; Murray, ©2002. -- ISBN 0-7195-5425-X. -- S. 193]

"MEMOIR

Reverend Robert Spence Hardy ( 1803-1868 )

Reverend Robert Spance Hardy was born at Preston on 1st. July, 1803. In 1819 at the age of sixteen he acted as a printer at York. From his twenty-second year, 1825-1830, 1835-1847 and again 1862-65 he served as a Wesleyan Missionary in Ceylon where he engaged himself in long and laborious study with the constant intercourse with the Sramana priests. As he says in his Introduction which he wrote in 1852, that he proceeded with his work "with intense application, honesty of purpose, a long residence in the country where the system is professed and daily use of the language from which he had principally translated." He had been a zealous collector of MSS. and used his discoveries for literary and historical investigations that have thrown a flood of light on many obscure points in the history of religious movements in India and Ceylon. His intimate acquaintance with manuscripts and other not easily accessible literature made Hardy a first-rate authority on all questions relating to the subjects he treated in his particular line of research. His keen intelligence and extensive learning, unaided by any source but his own indefatigable labours, made him a leading spirit. He will be for ever remembered for his life-work—na hi karma kshiyate.

Among his works are :

  • On the Connection of the British Government with the Idolatory of Ceylon, 1834;
  • Notices of the Holy Land, 1835;
  • Eastern Monachism, an account of the laws of the Order of the Mendicants, 1850 and
  • A Manual of Buddhism, 1853.

He died in Headingley near Leeds on 6th. April, 1868."

[Hardy, R. Spence <1803-1868>: A manual of Budhism, in its modern development / translated from Singhalese mss. by R. Spence Hardy. -- [1st Indian ed.]. -- Varanasi : Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office, 1967. -- (Chowkhamba Sanskrit studies ; vol 56). -- S.3]

1852

Zweiter britisch-birmanischer Krieg:  Birma muss den Briten sein restliches Küstengebiet (Niederbirma) abtreten.

1856/1860 bis 64

Robert Caesar Childers (1838-1876) im Ceylon Civil Service

"Childers (spr. tschillders), Robert Cesar, hervorragender Kenner des Buddhismus, geb. 1838, gest. 25. Juli 1876, studierte in Oxford und ging 1860 nach Indien. Während eines mehrjährigen Aufenthalts in Ceylon als englischer Zivilbeamter machte er sich mit Hilfe eines Eingebornen mit dem Pâli (s.d.) bekannt und gab nach seiner Rückkehr nach England (1864), wo er 1872 Unterbibliothekar an der Bibliothek des India Office, dann Professor des Pâli und der buddhistischen Literatur am University College in London wurde, im Journal der Asiatic Society mehrere Pâlitexte mit Übersetzungen sowie Untersuchungen über das Singhalesische, die einheimische Sprache von Ceylon, heraus, die er als Tochter des Sanskrits nachzuweisen versuchte. Sein Hauptwerk ist das preisgekrönte »Dictionary of the Pali language« (Lond. 1875), das eine neue Epoche in dem Studium der Pâliliteratur und des Buddhismus begründete. An der Herausgabe einer im Manuskript fertigen Pâligrammatik wurde er durch den Tod gehindert."

[Quelle: Meyers großes Konversations-Lexikon. -- DVD-ROM-Ausg. Faksimile und Volltext der 6. Aufl. 1905-1909. -- Berlin : Directmedia Publ. --2003. -- 1 DVD-ROM. -- (Digitale Bibliothek ; 100). -- ISBN 3-89853-200-3. -- s.v.]

"CHILDERS, ROBERT CAESAR (1838—1876), English Oriental scholar, son of the Rev. Charles Childers, English chaplain at Nice, was born in 1838. In 1860 he received an appointment in the civil service of Ceylon, which he retained until 1864, when he was compelled to return to England owing to ill-health. He had ‘studied Päli during his residence in Ceylon, under Unnanse Yatramulle, a learned Buddhist for whom he cherished a life-long respect, and he had gained an insight into the Sinhalese character and ways of thought. In 1869 he published the first Pali text ever printed in England, and began to prepare a Pali dictionary, the first volume of which was published in 1872, and the second and concluding volume in 1875. In the following year it was awarded the Volney prize by the Institute of France, as being the most important philological work of the year. He was a frequent contributor to the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, in which he published the Mahã-parinibbdna Sutta, the Pãli text giving the account of the last days of Buddha’s life. In 1872 he was appointed sub-librarian at the India Office, and in the following year he became the first professor of Pãli and Buddhist literature at University College, London. He died in London on the 25th of July 1876."

[Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911, s. v. -- Online: http://4.1911encyclopedia.org/. -- Zugriff am 2003-05-06]

1864 bis-1877

Thomas William Rhys Davids (1842-1922) im Civil Service in Ceylon als Richter tätig. (siehe unten)

He "had been asked to settle a dispute arising from the death of a bhikkhu. The question seemed to be wether his assistant or another monk should take his place; the answer, Rhys Davids was told, lay in a body of law called Vinaya, which could only be read in Pali."

Bhikkhu Unnanse Yatramulle lehrt nun Rhys Davids Pali. Rhys Davids sammelt vollständigen Text des Tipitaka auf Palmblättern.

1869-11-17

Eröffnung des Suezkanals durch die französische Kaiserin Eugénie. Dadurch wird der Seeweg nach Asien um einen Monat verkürzt. Großbritannien kauft 1875 die ägyptischen Aktienanteile am Kanal.

1871

Beal, Samuel <1825-1889>: A catena of Buddhist scriptures from the Chinese.  -- London : Trübner, 1871. -- 436 S. -- [Description : The Buddhist Canon in China, as it was arranged between the years 67 and 1285 A.D, includes 1440 distinct works, comprising 5586 books. But these form only a fractional part of the entire Buddhist Literature. The present books is divided into parts. In the beginning the book contains an informative introduction. Part I contains Legends and Myths which includes -- The Origin of the rivers; The Navel of the earth; The Habitable world; the Four great continents; On the Karma that leads to birth in these worlds: On the causes of the earthquakes; on the eight cold Hells; on the abode of the king Yama. The Superior Heaven; The thirty three heavens; The four divisions of Dhyana Heavens; the occupants of the Heaveans; General summary; The collective Universe; The extent of the different systems of the worlds; on the length of time called a Kalpa; On the kalpa of Perfection; on the various tiers of the world; on the names of the great numbers used in Buddhist books; Legend of Sakya; Origin of the Sakya family; Memoirs by Wang Puh; the various scenes of Sakya teaching; his methods of teaching; the various developments of his doctrine; the eternity of his law; his successors; the epitome of Buddha^s life. Part II deals with Buddhism as a Religion -- The necessity of meditation; Buddhism as a atheisitic system; as a nihilistic system; The Nirvana -- The character of Nirvana; Chinese definitions; the discussion found in the Mahaparinirvana Sutra. The Sutra of the Forty-Two Sections, The Pratimoksha, The Daily Manual of the Shaman, The Tian T^ai School of Buddhism. Part III is on the Scholastic Period -- General division of the Buddhist development; Translation of Sutras. Part IV. Mystic Period -- Definition of Mysticism; the convent at Nalanda; the worship of Kwan-yin; . Part.V. Decline and Fall -- Naga worship. In the end the book Contains Additional Notes, General Index, and Index of Proper Names, arranged Phonetically.. -- http://www.blessingsonthenet.com/publication/getbook.asp?book=SSP136. -- Zugriff am 2003-05-13]

"BEAL, SAMUEL (1825-89), Christian clergyman who specialised in Chinese Buddhist studies. Perhaps he is best known for his English account of the travels of such famed ancient travellers as Hsüan-tsang, his Catena of Buddhist Scriptures (1872) and the Fo-so-hsin-tsan-ching (SEE. XIX), being the translation from the Chinese of Asvaghosa's Life of the Buddha (Buddha-caritakâvya) which had been rendered into Chinese by Dharmaraksa in the early 5th cent.

Beal served as naval chaplain and his ship, H.M.S. "Sybille" was stationed in the China Sea. He made use of this opportunity to learn Chinese, both spoken and written, and he familiarised himself sufficiently with it to serve as naval interpreter during the war of 1856—8. But he had more earnest reasons, for he aimed to be a deep student as he wanted to elucidate the little known Buddhism of that country. Having attained his objective, he developed a proper attitude in interpreting a religion to which he by no means subscribed. Indeed, that approach is emphasised in his own way when dealing with some other topic : " I have suffered no prejudice to interfere with the honesty of my work " (Chinese Accounts of India, Susil Gupta Ltd., Calcutta, 1957, Introd.).

Besides the above books by him are the following:

  • Travels of Buddhist Pilgrims (1869),
  • The Romantic Legend of Buddha (1875),
  • Dhamma Pada or Texts from the Buddhist Canon (1878),
  • Buddhism in China (1881) and
  • Si-Yu-Ki : Buddhist Records of the Western World.

The last-named work, published in Triibner's Oriental Series, is a constant source of information which is now more easily available in the Indian reprint noted above. Although an independent worker in his chosen field, Beal was in touch with such fellow-workers as Colonel Yule and R. Rost.

He was a valued contributor to the JRAS. and I A. Vols. XIX (Old Series) and I, II, V, VI, XIII, XV, XVI and XIX of the former, and IV, VIII. XII, XV and XVE of the latter, contain Buddhist articles, notes and miscellaneous communications by him. They were mainly on aspects of Chinese Buddhism, naturally enough, but he also occasionally wrote on outside topics. Among these were ' Some Remarks on the Great Tope of Sanchi' (JRAS. New Series, V), ' Remarks on the Bharhut Sculptures and Inscriptions ' (IA. XI), ' Kukkutapâda-Giri and Kukkuta Sanghârâma ' (ibid. XII), ' The Age and Writings of Nâgârjuna Bodhi-sattva' (ibid. XV), as far as related to Buddhist studies. A very interesting comparative examination of the prâtimoksa ritual was made by him (JRAS. Old Series, XIX) from the Chinese, in concordance with the Pali by D. J. Gogerly of Ceylon. ' Confessional Service of the Great Compassionate Kwan Yin ' (JRAS. New Series, II) and ' The Eighteen Schools of Buddhism ' (IA. IX) are of more than ordinary interest.

Beal was honoured by the Durham University with the degree of Doctor of Civil Laws. At the University of London he gave five lectures on Chinese Buddhism. In the year following (1877) he was appointed to the post of Professor of Chinese in that institution. His last three appointments in the Christian priesthood were as rector, respectively of Falstone, Wark and Greens Norton. Some of his best Chinese studies were made during this period.

(For succint biographical notices see Dictionary of National Biography, XXII, Suppl. Vol.; JRAS. New Series, XXI, v. 1128; bibliographical details appeared in the JRAS. & I A. Index Vols.)"

[D. T. Devendra. -- In: In: Encyclopedia of Buddhism / ed. by G. P. Malalasekera. -- Colombo : Government of Ceylon. -- Vol. II. -- 1968. -- S. 595f.]

1872 bis 1875

Childers, Robert Caesar (1838-1876): A dictionary of the Pali language. -- London: Trubner, 1875. -- 624 S. -- [Issued in two parts, 1872-75]

1877

Königin Viktoria nimmt den Titel Kaiserin von Indien an

Abb.: One_Rupee-Münze: Victoria Empress, India 1877 [Bildquelle: http://www-cm.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/coins/east-west/gallery/gallery_57.html. -- Zugriff am 2003-05-15]

1881 bis 1894

Bei der Clarendon Press, Oxford erscheinen innerhalb der 50 Bände der berühmten Übersetzungsreihe Sacred Books of the East (herausgegeben von Max Müller) folgende Übersetzungen buddhistischer Texte:

1881

Pali Text Society nach dem Muster der Early English Text Society; gegründet von T.W. Rhys Davids (1842-1922).

"For the purpose of promoting and fostering the study of Pali. His object was to publish romanized editions of the original texts, to issue their translations and to make available such other works as would be auxillary to the study of Pali."

[Webpräsenz: http://www.palitext.com/. -- Zugrif am 2005-04-26]

"The Pali Text Society was founded in 1881 by T.W. Rhys Davids "to foster and promote the study of Pali texts".

Pali is the language in which the texts of the Theravada school of Buddhism is preserved. The Pali texts are unique in Buddhism because they are the oldest collection of Buddhist scriptures preserved in the language in which they were written down.

The society first compiled, edited, and published roman script versions of the entire corpus on Pali literature, including the Pali Canon, as well as commentarial, exergetical texts, and histories. It also publishes ancillary works including dictionaries, concordance, books for students of Pali and a journal.

History

T. W. Rhys Davids was one of three British civil servants who were posted to Sri Lanka, in the 19th_century, the others being George Turnour, and Robert Caesar Childers (1838-1876). At this time Buddhism in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) was struggling under the weight of foreign rule and intense missionary activity by Christians. It was an administrative requirement that all civil servants should be familiar with the language, literature, and culture of the land in which they were posted, so the three men studied with several scholar monks where, along with an introduction to Sinhala culture and language, they became interested in Buddhism.

The Pali Text Society was founded on the model of the Early English Text Society with Rhys Davids counting on support from a lot of European scholars and Sri Lankan scholar monks. The work of bringing out the roman text editions of the Pali Canon was not financially rewarding, but was achieved with the backing of the Buddhist clergy in Sri Lanka who underwrote the printing costs.

Childers published the first Pali-English dictionary in 1874. This was superseded in 1925 by the new Dictionary which had largely been compiled by T. W. Rhys Davids over 40 years, but was finished by his student William Stede. Currently another dictionary is being compiled by Margaret Cone, with the first of three volumes (A - Kh) published in 2001.

By 1922, when T. W. Rhys Davids died, the Pali Text Society had issued 64 separate texts in 94 volumes extending over 26,000 pages, as well a range of articles by English and European scholars.

Significant members of the Pali Text society
  • Thomas William Rhys Davids (1843-1922). Founder and President 1881-1922.
  • Caroline Augusta Foley Rhys Davids (1857-1942). President 1922-1942.
  • Isaline Blew Horner OBE (1896-1981). Honorary Secretary 1942-1959; President and Honorary Treasurer, 1959-1981.

[Quelle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pali_Text_Society. -- Zugriff am 2005-04-26]

1882

Journal of the Pali Text Society. Erscheint 1882 bis 1927. 1981ff.

1882 bis 1904

T.W. Rhys Davids (1842-1922) Professor für Pali and Buddhist studies am University College, London

1885/86

Dritter britisch-birmanischer Krieg: Großbritannien erobert -- u.a. um einen Zugang nach Yünnan zu haben -- das restliche Birma (Oberbirma) und gliedert es am 1. Januar 1886 in sein indische Imperium ein. Den birmanische Widerstand erstickt Großbritannien auf brutalste Weise (Massenexekutionen, Ausrottung ganzer Dörfer).


2. Thomas William Rhys Davids und Caroline Augusta Foley Rhys Davids


Literatur:

Wikremeratne, Ananda: The genesis of an orientalist : Thomas William Rhys Davids and Buddhism in Sri Lanka. -- 1st ed. -- Columbia : South Asia Books ; Delhi : Motilal Banarsidass, 1985. --  246 S. -- ISBN 0-8364-0867-5

 
Abb.: T. W. Rhys Davids

[Bildquelle: http://www.quangduc.com/quocte/01pgkhaptg3-davids.html. -- Zugriff am 2003-05-06]

Thomas William Rhys Davids (May 12, 1843 - December 27, 1922) was an English scholar of the Pāli language and founder of the Pali Text Society.

T. W. Rhys Davids was well educated in Latin at school. Deciding on the Civil Service he studied Sanskrit at Breslau, Germany, where he earned money by teaching English. He returned to England in 1863 and, passing his civil service exams, he was posted to Ceylon. As Magistrate of Galle a case was brought before Rhys Davids involving questions of ecclesiastical law, and he first came across Pali when a document in an strange language was tabled as evidence.

In 1871 he was posted as Assistant Government Agent of Nuwarakalaviya of which Anuradhapura was the administrative centre, where the Governor was Sir Hercules Robinson. Robinson founded the Archaeological Commission in 1868. Rhys Davids became involved with the excavation of ancient Ceylonese city Anuradhapura, which had been abandoned after an invasion in 993. He began to collect inscriptions and manuscripts, and from 1870-1872 wrote a series of articles for the Ceylon branch of the Royal Asiatic Society Journal about them. During this time Rhys Davids learned the local language and spent time with the people of the area. His civil service career, along with his residence in Sri Lanka, came to an abrupt end: personal differences with his superior C. W. Twynham seem to have inspired formal investigation, tribunal, and dismissal for misconduct. A variety of minor offences had been discovered by the investigation, as well as several significant grievances concerning fines improperly exacted both from Davids' local subjects and his employees. He then studied for the bar and briefly practised law, although he continued to publish articles about Sri Lankan inscriptions.

From 1882 to 1904 Rhys Davids was Professor of Pali in the University of London, a post which carried no fixed salary other than lecture fees. In 1905 he took up the Chair of Comparative Religion in the University of Manchester. Davids attempted various methods to promote Theravada Buddhism and Pāli scholarship in England. He actively lobbied the government (in co-operation with the Asiatic Society of Great Britain) to expand funding for the study of Indian languages and literature, advancing numerous arguments (in writing and in lectures) as to how this would strengthen imperial England's grip on India. His attempts to increase general public interest among Britons included a numerous "Historical Lectures" and papers advancing a racialist theory of the common "Aryan" ethnicity of the people of England, Sri Lanka, and the Buddha's own tribe in times gone by. These views are comparable to the racial theories of Max Müller, but were used to a different purpose: Davids tried to establish that Britons would have a natural, "racial" affinity with Buddhist doctrine. This aspect of Davids' career has been criticized.

He married Caroline Augusta Foley, a noted Pāli scholar in her own right, in 1894. Unlike his wife, Davids was a lifelong critic and opponent of Theosophy."

[Quelle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_William_Rhys_Davids. -- Zugriff am 2005-04-26]

"Davids, Rhys, namhafter Indianist, geb. 12. Mai 1843 in Colchester, besuchte das Gymnasium in Brighton, studierte 1863-65 Sanskrit in Breslau bei Stenzler und ging 1866 nach Ceylon in den englischen Zivildienst. Nach England zurückgekehrt, wurde er 1876 Barrister, 1883 Professor des Pâli und der buddhistischen Literatur am University College in London, 1887 Sekretär der Royal Asiatic Society daselbst. Auch hat er 1882 die Pâli Text Society gegründet, für die er unter anderm die buddhistischen Werke »Sumangala« und »Dîgha Nikâya« herausgab. Er schrieb: »Ancient coins and measures of Ceylon« (Lond. 1877); »Buddhist birth stories« (das. 1880); »Lectures on the origin and growth of religion as illustrated by Indian buddhism« (das. 1881); »Buddhism« (das. 1878,2. Ausg. 1887); »Vinaya texts« (mit Oldenberg, Oxf. 1881-85, 3 Bde.); »Buddhist Suttas« (das. 1881); »The questions of King Milinda« (das. 1890)."

[Quelle: Meyers großes Konversations-Lexikon. -- DVD-ROM-Ausg. Faksimile und Volltext der 6. Aufl. 1905-1909. -- Berlin : Directmedia Publ. --2003. -- 1 DVD-ROM. -- (Digitale Bibliothek ; 100). -- ISBN 3-89853-200-3. -- s.v.]

"In 1864 a twenty-one-year-old Welshman named Thomas Williams Rhys Davids went out to Ceylon to join the Ceylon Civil Service. His background was unusual in two respects: he was the son of a Welsh Congregationalist Minister, and he had studied Sanskrit in Germany. In Ceylon, as in India, the Sepoy Mutiny had caused both a great deal of heart-searching and a stiffening of resolve, so that Rhys Davids joined a government committed to a policy of Anglicisation. All formal education on the island was now in the hands of Christian educators and only schools teaching the Bible received government funding. Since only those with government-recognised qualifications could get jobs in government, Buddhists were effectively barred from such employment.

As if these impositions were not enough, the Christian missions had also embarked on a campaign aimed at isolating a Buddhist clergy they regarded as self-serving and ignorant. In the same year as Rhys Davids' arrival in Colombo, the two main Christian denominations joined forces to challenge the Buddhist monks to debate the merits of their respective religions in public. These debates became ever more popular, culminating in 1873 in what
became known as the 'Great Debate of Panadura', a two-day disputation at which the Buddhist bhikkhu Gohottivatte Gunanda defended Buddhism to the acclaim of an audience often thousand Sinhalese lay-people.

Intended to demonstrate the superiority of Christianity and to drive a wedge between the Buddhist clergy and a seemingly indifferent lay community, these debates had the opposite effect. Widely publicised, they led to a resurgence of interest in Buddhism on the island, as well as initiating reforms. Two Buddhist secondary schools and a college were founded between 1873 and 1875, and a new sense of cultural identity began to take shape among the Sinhalese. A young Buddhist monk named Naranwita Sumanasaru Unnanse took it upon himself to start single-handedly clearing the acres of jungle that had swallowed up the ancient city of Anuradhapura, the capital of King Devanampiya Tissa at the time of Ashoka, in the plains to the north of Kandy. Word of his activities eventually reached the Governor, Sir William Gregory, and led to the appointment of an Archaeological Commissioner and the setting-up of an Archaeological Department.

Rhys Davids, meanwhile, learned Sinhalese and Tamil, and became a magistrate. In a case he was presiding over involving a Buddhist temple, a Pah document was presented in evidence that no one present could translate. Rhys Davids' interest was aroused, and he sought out a monk who could teach him Pah, an old bhikkhu named Yatramulle Unnanse of whom he later wrote:

'When he first came to me the hand of death was already upon him. He was sinking into the grave from the effects of a painful and incurable malady . . . There was a strange light in his eyes and he was constantly turning away from questions of Pah to questions of Buddhism . . . There was an indescribable attraction, a highmindedness that filled me with reverence.'

A year or two later Rhys Davids became locked in a dispute over a legal matter with a superior officer. A higher ruling went against him and as a matter of principle he resigned, returning to Britain to study law — and taking with him the malaria that periodically left him prostrate for the rest of his life. He became increasingly drawn towards a more serious study of Pali, and the interpretation of Buddhist texts. He looked at the efforts of such earlier Pali scholars as Tumour and concluded that Pali studies in the West needed to be organised, which led to his foundation in 1881 of the Pali Text Society, 'to render accessible to students the rich stores of the earliest Buddhist literature now lying unedited and practically unused in the various manuscripts scattered throughout the universities and public libraries in Europe'.

Rhys Davids was at this time greatly influenced by Max Miiller' s work at Oxford on comparative religions. Max Müller had been thought too radical to take over the Oxford Chair in Sanskrit — but a new Professorship of Comparative Philology had been created for him, which he held with great distinction until his death. Max Müller was first and foremost a Sanskritist, but in 1872 he gave Oxford's prestigious annual series of Hibbert Lectures, speaking on the subject of the origin and growth of religions. He presented a new interpretation of Buddhism, now arguing that the 'gospel of negation' associated with Buddhism was a later accretion brought on by 'monkish orthodoxy', and that nirvana did not represent a doctrine of utter annihilation. This marked the beginning of a more positive attitude towards Buddhism in the West, one that depended almost wholly on readings of Pali rather than Sanskrit sources, thus on the Theravada rather than the Mahayana tradition of Buddhism. In Britain the main vehicle for this new thinking was Rhys Davids' Buddhism: being a Sketch of the Life and Teachings of Gautama, the Buddha, published in 1877 under the unwitting auspices of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

T. W. Rhys Davids' text presented a vision of Buddhism in which the Pah canon was shown to be the original 'true' Buddhism, later corrupted by Mahayana accretions, rather as the early Christian teaching had been corrupted by Roman Catholicism: 'The development of Buddhist doctrine which has taken place in the Punjab [Gandhara], Nepal and Tibet is exceedingly interesting, and very valuable from the similarity it bears to the development which has taken place in Christianity in the Roman Catholic countries. It has resulted at last in the complete establishment of Lamaism, a religion not only in many points different from, but actually antagonistic to, the primitive system of Buddhism.'

Here was a rationalist explication that Protestant Britain — to say nothing of Protestant Germany and a large section of the United States of America — could understand and identify with."

[Allen, Charles <1940 - >: The search for the Buddha : the men who discovered India's lost religion . -- London ; Murray, ©2002. -- ISBN 0-7195-5425-X. -- S. 239 - 242]


 
Abb.: C. A. F. Rhys Davids

"Caroline Augusta Foley Rhys Davids (1857-1942): Caroline Foley was born on 27 September 1857. She was educated at home and at University College, London. She was a member of staff of the Economic Journal, 1891-5. She worked on behalf of various societies for the welfare of women and children, 1890-4, and was a campaigner for women's suffrage, 1896-1914. She married Thomas Rhys Davids, 1894. She was appointed Lecturer in Indian Philosophy at Manchester University, 1910-13, and Lecturer in the History of Buddhism at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, 1918-33. She was President of the Pali Text Society, 1922-42. She died in Chipstead, Surrey, 26 June 1942."

[Quelle. http://www.oriental.cam.ac.uk/davids.html. -- Zugriff am 2003-05-06]

Caroline Augusta Foley Rhys Davids (1857-1942). Pāli language scholar and translator, and from 1922-1942 president of the Pali Text Society which was founded by her husband T.W. Rhys Davids who she married in 1894. Her translations of Pāli texts were at times idosyncratic but her contribution was considerable. She translated the Samyutta Nikaya, and the Therigata and Theragata of the Pali Canon, the Jataka or birth stories of the Buddha's previous lives, and wrote several popular books on the subject of Buddhism.

Unlike her husband, C.A.F. Rhys Davids became strongly influenced by Theosophy; the terminology and beliefs of the latter religion are evident in her more personal writing, and, to some extent, shaped her "psychological" interpretation of many key Pali terms.

As well as her academic work in Indian philosophy and the history of Buddhism, Rhys Davids did charitable work for women and children, and was a campaigner for women's suffrage."

[Quelle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Augusta_Foley_Rhys_Davids. -- Zugriff am 2005-04-26]

Buchveröffentlichungen von T. W. Rhys Davids:

Ohne Anspruch auf Vollständigkeit!

The Sumangala-vilasini, Buddhaghosa's commentary on the Dighanikaya; edited, 1886.

Buddhist India. London, 1903

Buddhism and Christianity. [In: Non-Christian systems of religion, 1888. p. 115-134]

Buddhism: being a sketch of the life and teachings of Gautama, the Buddha, 1887. [Published under the direction of the Committee of general literature and education appointed by the Society for promoting Christian knowledge.]

Buddhism: its history and literature, 1894-95. [Some later editions published with title: The history and literature of Buddhism.]

Der Buddhismus. Eine Darstellung von dem Leben und den Lehren Gautamas, des Buddhas. Nach der 17. Auflage aus dem Englischen ins Deutsche ubertragen von Dr. Arthur Pfungst, 1899 (Pfungst, Arthur Joseph, 1864-1912)

Buddhist India, 1903.

Early Buddhism, 1908.

Is life worth having? and The eternal hope: an answer from Buddha's first sermon to some questions of to-day ... London, Sunday Lecture Society, 1880.

Lectures on the origin and growth of religion as illustrated by some points in the history of Indian Buddhism, 1881.

On the ancient coins and measures of Ceylon : with a discussion of the Ceylon date of the Buddha's death, 1877.

The Pali Text Society's Pali-English dictionary. Edited by T.W. Rhys Davids and William Stede, 1921-1925.

Dialogues of the Buddha. Translated from the Pali, 1899-1921.

Buddhist birth stories : or, Jataka tales ; the oldest collection of folk-lore extant, being the Jatakatthavannana / for the first time edited in the original Pali by V. Fausboll and translated by T.W. Rhys Davids, 1880.

The Digha-nikaya. Ed. by Prof. T.W. Rhys Davids ... and Prof. J. Estlin Carpenter, 1890-1911.

Buddhist suttas, 1881.

Vinaya texts / translated from Pali, 1881-1885.

The Yogavacara's manual of Indian mysticism as practiced by Buddhists / edited , 1896.


3. Edwin Arnold: The light of Asia



Abb.: Titelblatt einer Ausgabe von 1906

Arnold, Edwin (1832-1904): The light of Asia : or the great renunciation (Mahabhiniskramana), being the life and teaching of Gautama, prince of India and founder of Buddhism / (as told in verse by an Indian Buddhist). -- London : Trübner, 1879.

Insgesamt erschienen 80 englischsprachige Ausgaben mit einer Gesamtauflage von zwischen 500.000 und 1 Mill. Exemplaren

1885: revidierte Auflage (bis dahin 30 Auflagen in London), amerikanische Raubdrucke verwendeten auch nach 1885 noch die erste Auflage.

Online-Ausgabe: http://www.theosophy-nw.org/theosnw/books/lightasi/asia-hp.htm. -- Zugriff am 2003-05-06


Weiterführende Ressourcen:

Wright, Brooks: Interpreter of Buddhism in the West : Sir Edwin Arnold. -- New York, 1957.

Peiris, William: Edwin Arnold : a brief account of his life and contribution to Buddhism. -- Kandy : Buddhist Publication Society, 1970. -- (The Wheel ; 159-161)



Abb.: Edwin Arnold

Edwin Arnold (1832 - 1904)

1832

in Kent geboren

1857

Principal des Deccan College in Poona, Indien.

1861

nahm er eine Stelle beim Londoner Daily Telegraph, wurde später Herausgeber und blieb bei diesem Blatt 40 Jahre. Während dieser Zeit schrieb er

1879

The Light of Asia

1885

revidierte Ausgabe von The Light of Asia

1885

Edwin Arnold schreibt im Daily Telegraph über den verwahrlosten Zustand von Bodh Gaya. Er macht auch eine diesbezügliche Eingabe an indische Regierung. Diese Tat Arnolds wird den Anstoß geben zur Gründung der Maha Bodhi Society 1891 (s. unten). Dadurch wurde Arnold ebenfalls sehr wichtig für die neobuddhistische Bewegung.

 
Abb.: Mahabodhi-Tempel in Bodh Gaya, um 1799

"Painful it certainly is, to one who realises the immense significance of this spot in the history of Asia and of humanity, to wander round the precincts of the holy tree, and to see scores and hundreds of broken sculptures lying about in the jungle or on the brickheaps. . . numberless beautiful broken stones tossed aside, cut into Buddhas and Bodhisats with a skill often quite admirable ... a whole pile of selected fragments — five or six cartloads — lying in dust and darkness, the very first of which, when examined, bore the Buddhist formula of faith, and the second was an exquisite bas-relief of Buddha illustrating the incident of the mad elephant who worshipped him."

[Zitiert in: Allen, Charles <1940 - >: The search for the Buddha : the men who discovered India's lost religion . -- London ; Murray, ©2002. -- ISBN 0-7195-5425-X. -- S. 193; Bild: ebd. Pl. 1]

1891

Arnold schreibt er eine versifiziertes christliches Pendant: Light of the World, hatte damit aber keinen so großen Erfolg.

1904

Edwin Arnold stirbt


"Arnold, Sir Edwin, engl. Dichter, Sprachgelehrter und Journalist, geb. 10. Juni 1832, studierte in Oxford und wurde zum Direktor des Government Sanscrit College in Puna ernannt. Von Indien 1861 nach England zurückgekehrt, leitet er seither den »Daily Telegraph«, auf dessen Kosten die Entsendung des Assyriologen G. Smith nach Niniveh erfolgte, und teilweise die Expedition H. Stanleys zur Auffindung Livingstones. Er veröffentlichte allzu wörtliche Übersetzungen aus dem Griechischen (»The poets of Greece«, 1869; »Hero and Leander«, nach Musäos, 1873) und das Drama »Griselda« (1856), »Poems, narrative and lyrical« (1853, darunter »A ma future«) und als Früchte seiner orientalischen Studien: »The book of good counsels« (Ausgabe und abgekürzte Übersetzung der »Hitopadesa«, 1861), »The Indian song of songs« (1875, neue Ausg. als »Indian poetry«, 1883). »The light of Asia«, ein großes Gedicht über Leben und Lehre des Buddha (1879, in vielen Auflagen erschienen; deutsch von Pfungst, Leipz. 1891), ist sein Hauptwerk, dem als schwächeres christliches Gegenstück 1891 »The light of the world« folgte. Auch schrieb er eine »History of India under the administration of the Earl of Dalhousie« (1864, 2Bde.), »India revisited« (1886) und gab eine Sammlung seiner Reisebriefe von seiner 1889 unternommenen Weltfahrt u. d. T.: »Seas and lands« (1891) heraus sowie 1892 »Potiphars Wife and other poems«. A. dankt seine Erfolge hauptsächlich der glücklichen Stoffwahl. Als Übersetzer ist er etwas pedantisch, und als freier Dichter fehlt es ihm an guter Technik und stilistischem Reiz."

[Quelle: Meyers großes Konversations-Lexikon. -- DVD-ROM-Ausg. Faksimile und Volltext der 6. Aufl. 1905-1909. -- Berlin : Directmedia Publ. --2003. -- 1 DVD-ROM. -- (Digitale Bibliothek ; 100). -- ISBN 3-89853-200-3. -- s.v.]

"Edwin Arnold was born in Gravesend on 10th June, 1832. He went to Oxford University where he won the Newdigate prize for poetry. After university he taught at King Edward's School, Birmingham and Bombay University in India.

Arnold returned to England in 1861 and joined the staff of the Daily Telegraph. On the death of Thornton Leigh Hunt in 1873, Arnold was appointed editor of the newspaper. His views were less liberal than those of Hunt and the paper began to question the policies of the government led by William Gladstone. Arnold was particularly upset by attempts to cut defence expenditure and claimed that Gladstone would "fling half our Empire overboard and jettison India herself in order to teach Britain modesty." Whereas Hunt used to describe Gladstone in the Daily Telegraph as the "People's William", Arnold favoured the more imperialistic policies of his Conservative opponent, Benjamin Disraeli.

Arnold recruited staff that shared his political opinions and worked closely with Ellis Ashmead Bartlett, a strong advocate of British Imperialism in the House of Commons. Under the editorship of Arnold circulation of the newspaper continued to grow. In 1870 the daily average circulation was 196,855 and by 1877 it had risen to 242,215.

Arnold had a deep love of exploration and persuaded the proprietor, Edward Levy-Lawson, to spend large sums of money to obtain dramatic stories. This included joining with Bennett of the New York Herald to finance Stanley's search for David Livingstone in Africa. The Daily Telegraph also largely financed Sir Harry Johnson's exploration of Kilimanjaro in 1884.

A loyal supporter of the Conservative Party, Arnold was granted a knighthood by the Marquess of Salisbury in 1888. Later that year he resigned as editor of the Daily Telegraph and became the paper's travelling commissioner.

Arnold wrote the highly acclaimed, The Great Renunciation (1879). Other titles written by Arnold include India Revisted (1886), Seas and Lands (1891), Wandering Worlds (1894) and East and West (1896). Edwin Arnold, who suffered from failing eyesight in his later years, died on 24th March, 1904. "

[Quelle: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JarnoldE.htm. -- Zugriff am 2003-05-06]

"ARNOLD, EDWIN (1832-1904), orientalist, poet, journalist. He was one of the many European scholars who in the nineteenth century engaged themselves in interpreting to the West the vast world of Oriental thought and emotion. In carrying out this task, Arnold came to be known as one who more than any other, succeeded in popularising a knowledge of Buddhism in the early days of its contact with the West. This was mainly through his epic poem, The Light of Asia, which was published in 1879 and purported "to depict the life and character and indicate the philosophy of that noble hero and reformer, Prince Gautama of India, the Founder of Buddhism." [Light of Asia, Preface, 1885.] Olcott speaks of Arnold as "one who had laid the whole Buddhist world under deep obligations" [Old Diary Leaves, Olcott (1929), P. 342.] by writing The Light of Asia, which he describes as a book "which has done more for Buddhism than any other agency." [ Theosophist (Supplement for April. 1889).]

Arnold was born on the 10th June, 1832, son of a Sussex magistrate, Robert Coles Arnold of Whartons Framfield. He was educated at King's School, Rochester, King's College, London, and at University College, Oxford, where, in 1852 he obtained the Newdigate Prize with a poem called Belshazzar's Feast which he later included in his volume Poems, Narrative and Lyrical, a work published in 1853. He graduated at Oxford. gaining only a third class in the final classical school. This initial set-back, however, did not abate his great zeal for classical studies, nor seriously damp his love of learning. In 1854 he obtained his Master of Arts degree. For a brief period he served as assistant master at King Edward's School, Birmingham. In 1856 he published a collection of poems under the title Griselda. In the same year he came out to the East as Principal of the Government Deccan Sanskrit College, Poona. It was here that he imbibed his interest in the oriental classics and gathered the material for his future works.

Arnold became a Fellow of the University of Bombay and studied many oriental languages, Persian and Turkish among them. Deeply impressed with the treasures of Sanskrit lore and literature, and convinced in the belief that the hope of Hindustan lay in the intelligent interest of England4 and that " whatever avails to dissipate the misconceptions between them, and to enlarge their intimacy is a gain to both peoples," [Book of Good Counsels (1924), Preface] he devoted himself to the conversion of many Indian classics into English verse. His translation of the Sanskrit Hitopadesa was published in 1861 as the Book of Good Counsels. The same desire for a sympathetic understanding between England and India underlies his work on the history of Lord Dalhousie's administration of British India, the first volume of which he dedicated to Sir John Lawrence who bore a chief part in the administration of the Punjab, and the second to his wife, Katherine, by whose sick-bed it was painfully composed and by whose death-bed it was mournfully finished.

During the Indian mutiny of 1857, he was able to convert into action his kindness and sympathy with the Indian people, an attitude which won for him the nation's warm affection as well as the admiration of the Government of India. In 1860, he wrote a pamphlet on the subject of Indian education where again his desire for East-West rapprochement is evident in the plea he there makes for a more scientific synthesis of Eastern learning and Western knowledge. In his book Seas and Lands, he says, addressing the Japanese :

"You cannot, gentlemen, import our civilization. You must make science Japanese by time and patience.....But I cherish the hope that
your path to progress will never lead you entirely out of sight of your own peculiar refinements and that the primary duty of national self-assertion will never finally efface that which is so special and precious in your own charming civilization. "

In 1862, an attractive Eastern note began to be felt in the leaders of the Daily Telegraph, the first penny newspaper in those early days of English journalism, boasting of ' the widest circulation in the world '. The voice that was thus heard was that of Arnold, who had returned to England in 1861 and joined the editorial staff of this popular journal. In 1873, he became its chief editor, serving in this capacity for almost eighteen years during which period his staff included Edward Dicey, James Macdonell and H. D. Traill. His services in the Press are described by a colleague of his, J. M. Le Sage :

" Whether the Chief — whom we loved — asked him to write the first leading article, the description of some great historical event or an ordinary news paragraph, he would do it to the utmost of his ability ; that the test of loyalty was not to do some big thing, but some small thing — and to do it well." [Cambridge History of English Literature, 1916. Vol. XIV p. 191.]

In 1877 he was made a Companion of the Star of India. By this time he was the author of a number of works pertaining to the Greek classics, including The Poets of Greece, Euterpe of Herodotus, The Wreck of the Northern Belle, and Hero and Leander.

The years after the Indian mutiny saw an outflow of Anglo-Indian literature. In 1875. Arnold joined his name to the list of poets who contributed to this intense literary activity with his poem, The Indian Song of Songs, a rendering of Jayadeva's Gîta govinda, later re-edited and published along with many other translations (including parts of the Mahâbhârata) and adaptations from Sanskrit literature, in his volume, Indian Poetry. With these works Arnold entered the circle of Anglo-Indian literary men of the period, a circle which included George Malleson, James Wheeler, William Hunter, John Lang, Iltudus Prichar. George Aberigh-Mackay, Henry Stuart Cunningham, George Trevelyan, William Bain and the poets William Waterfield, Mary Leslie, George Keene and Alfred Lyall.

But it was The Light of Asia which helped to establish his fame and entitled him to be classed with the lesser English poets of the late nineteenth century.

In The Light of Asia, Arnold attempted to tell the story of the Buddha in the words of a Buddhist votary, with episodes of his boyhood and renunciation of the household life as found in Buddhist legend, mainly, perhaps, in the Buddha-carita.

The work was well and widely received and by the end of the century, ran through sixty English and eighty American editions. Oliver Wandell Holmes hailed it in the International Review as ' a work of great beauty '.

There were, however, critics who doubted its permanent place in English poetry, as well as oriental scholars who pointed out that it presented an inaccurate picture of Buddhism to a public which was not familiar with its doctrine and beliefs. Also the suggested analogy between the Buddha and the Christ offended many devout Christians and the work was anathematised on the pulpits. This gave Arnold the idea of another narrative poem of which the hero should be Jesus Christ. It resulted in his poem, The Light of the World (pubd. 1891), which, however, did not meet with similar success, though it followed the same pattern, now telling the story of Jesus in the form of a dialogue between Mary Magdalene and one of the three Wise Men.

Arnold appears to have done much writing during the period following the publication of The Light of Asia. Apart from re-editing The Indian Song of Songs, he published two more religious poems : Pearls of the Faith, based on the religion of Islam, and The Song Celestial, a translation of the Bhagavad-gîtâ. In his Indian Idylls he brought out further translations from the Mahâbhârata. He also tried his hand at drama in Adzuma or the Japanese Wife and made some efforts to write short stories, novels, e.g., In Tent and Bungalow and The Queen's Justice. He wrote prolifically in prose, mainly on his travels.

In 1888 he was made a Knight Commander of the Indian Empire. Accompanied by his daughter be visited Japan in 1889, and was so taken up with the cultural life of Japan that he paid a second visit to the country. Most of his books on travel deal with Japan. His third wife, Jama Kurokawa, Lady Arnold, was a Japanese lady.

Olcott records a visit to Ceylon and a reception to Arnold in January 1886. [Old Diary leaves, Olcott (1929), p. 342]  Tours of America and the Pacific Coasts are also recorded.

He also received a number of foreign honours, the order of the White Elephant of Siam and the Imperial Order of the Medjidie among them. He was a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic and Royal Geographical Society and an Honorary Member of the Société de Géographie, Marseilles.

He lost his sight a few years before his death on 24th March 1904. He died at his house in Bolton Gardens, London, and was cremated at Brookwood, his ashes laid in the chapel of his old College at Oxford."

[Jayawardhana, Bandula. -- In: Encyclopedia of Buddhism / ed. by G. P. Malalasekera. -- Colombo : Government of Ceylon. -- Vol. II. -- 1966. -- S. 94 - 96]


Weitere Veröffentlichungen von Edwin Arnold in Buchform:

Ohne Anspruch auf Vollständigkeit!

Adzuma; or, The Japanese wife; a play in four acts, 1893.

Bilhana, The Chaurapanchasika, an Indian love-lament. Tr. & illustrated, 1896.

Death--and afterwards : reprinted from the "Fortnightly review" with a supplement, 1889.

East and West : being papers reprinted from the "Daily Telegraph" and other sources, 1896.

Enfin : a poem, hitherto unpublished, 1936.

The feast of Belshazzar, 1852.

Griselda, a tragedy: and other poems., 1856.

The Gulistan; being the Rose-garden of Shaikh Sa'di; the first four Babs, or "Gateways" tr. into prose and verse , 1899.

Hero and leander : from the Greek of Musaus, [187-?]

Hitopadesa; The Book of good counsels : from the Sanskrit, 1861.

In my lady's praise, being poems, old and new, written in honour of Fanny, lady Arnold, and now collected for her memory, 1889.

India revisited , 1886. ["Reprinted, with additions descriptive and poetical, from the'Daily telegraph'."]

Indian idylls : from the Sanskrit of the Mahabharata , 1907. [Contents: Savitri.--Nala and Damayanti.--The enchanted lake.--The saint's temptation.--The birth of death.--The night of slaughter.--The great journey.--The entry into heaven.]

Indian poetry, 1886. ["Containing 'The Indian Song of Songs', from the Sanskrit of the Gita Govinda of Jayadeva; two books from 'The Iliad of India'(Mahabharata); 'Proverbial wisdom' from the Shlokas of the Hitopadesa, and other oriental poems."]

The Indian Song of songs. From the Sanskrit of the Gita Govinda of Jayadeva. With other oriental poems, 1875.

Japonica. With illustrations by Robert Blum, 1891. [Essays on Japan reprinted from Scribner's magazine.]

Lotus and jewel. Containing "In an Indian temple," "A casket of gems,""A queen's revenge., 1887.

The Marquis of Dalhousie's administration of British India, 1862-65.

Oriental fairy tales, with an introduction by Sir Edwin Arnold, 1923.

Pearls of the faith; or, Islam's rosary; being the ninety-nine beautiful names of Allah (Asma-el-husna) With comments in verse from various oriental sources (as made by an Indian Mussulman), 1883.

Poems, 1882. [Contents: The Indian song of songs. From the Sanskrit of the Gita Govinda of Jayadeva.--Miscellaneous poems.--Translations from the Greek poets.]

Poems narrative and lyrical , 1853.

Poems, national and non-oriental, with some new pieces, 1888.

Poetical works, 1891-1907. -- 8 vol.

The poets of Greece, 1869.

Potiphar's wife, and other poems, 1892.

The queen's justice : a true story of Indian village life, 1899.

Seas and lands / reprinted by permission of the proprietors of the "Daily telegraph" from letters published under title "By sea and land" in that journal, 1891.

The secret of death (from the Sanskrit) With some collected poems, 1885.

A simple transliteral grammar of the Turkish language. / Comp. from various sources. With dialogues and vocabulary, 1891.

The song celestial, or, Bhagavad-gita (from the Mahabharata) : being a discourse between Arjuna, Prince of India, and the supreme being under the form of Krishna / translated from the Sanskrit, 1896.

The tenth muse : and other poems, 1895.

The voyage of Ithobal ... Illustrations by A. Lumley, 1901 [ Poems on the circumnavigation of Africa in the time of Necho.]

Wandering words. With illus. from drawings by Ben Boothby and from photos, 1894 [Contents: An earthly paradise.--Watching the stars.--An adventure on the Nile.--In the Holy Land.--Indian princes at home.--Love and marriage in Japan.--Japanese wrestlers.--At an Indian Christmas-time.--Some Japanese pictures.--And not ashamed.--A lucky newspaper.--The tiger's village.--Wild boars.--The wealth of poverty.--Stronger than death.--How the dead saved the living.--Days at sea.--Oriental story-tellers.--A gentle murderess.--Tent life.]

With Sa'di in the garden; or, The book of love, being the "Ishk" or third chapter of the "Bostan" of the Persian poet Sa'di, embodied in a dialogue held in the garden of the Taj Mahal, at Agra, 1888.


Ob Arnold Buddhist war oder nicht, darüber gibt es eine große Kontroverse.

Aber "it was from Light of Asia more than any other book that Americans first learned the story and the teachings of the Buddha" 

[Fields, S. 69]

Seine Bewunderung Buddhas drückt Arnold im Vorwort aus:

"More than a third of mankind, therefore, owe their moral and religious ideas to this illustrious prince; whose personality, though imperfectly revealed in the existing sources of information, cannot but appear the highest, gentlest, holiest, and most beneficent, with one exception [nämlich Jesus von Nazareth] in the history of Thought."

Einen guten Eindruck vom Stil des Ganzen gibt der Beginn des 3. Buchs:

"BOOK THE THIRD

In which calm home of happy life and love
Ligged our Lord Buddha, knowing not of woe,
Nor want, nor pain, nor plague, nor age, nor death,
Save as when sleepers roam dim seas in dreams,
And land awearied on the shores of day,
Bringing strange merchandise from that black voyage.
Thus ofttimes when he lay with gentle head
Lulled on the dark breasts of Yasôdhara,
Her fond hands fanning slow his sleeping lids,
He would start up and cry, 'My world! Oh, world!
I hear! I know! I come!' And she would ask,
'What ails my Lord?' with large eyes terror-struck;
For at such times the pity in his look
Was awful, and his visage as a god's.
Then would he smile again to stay her tears,
And bid the veenas sound; but once they set
A stringed gourd on the sill, there where the wind
Could linger o'er its notes and play at will --
Wild music makes the wind on silver strings --
And those who lay around heard only that;
But Prince Siddârta heard the Devas play,
And to his ears they sang such words as these: --
We are the voices of the wandering wind,
Which moan for rest and rest can never find;
Lo! as the wind is so is mortal life,
A moan, a sigh, a sob, a storm, a strife


Nebenbei bemerkt: um 1999 singen in Malysia The Wayfarers folgenden Song auf, eindeutig in Anspielung auf Arnolds Buchtitel:

	The Light Of Asia

    C       Em          F     C 
    In the land of the happy Sakyas,
        F         G7     C               Am
    For good and J0Y to all the world of men;
        F       G           Em       F
    The wisdom-child, that precious jewel,
      G          C              F       G    C
    Unmatched, unrivalled, was born in Lumbini.
          C           F
    We rejoice, we rejoice,
       G                   C
    Siddhartha Prince was born;
         F            Em
    We rejoice, we rejoice,
           G7            C 
    the Truth's Eternal Sun.
    
    
    At twenty nine, He left His kingdom,
    His wife, His child, to seek for Truth's bright Light;
    He wandered lonely in plain and forest,
    To tear the blindfold of dark illusion night.
    
    We rejoice, we rejoice,
    The trap of pain to free,
    We rejoice, we rejoice,
    He rode in victory.
    

    Underneath the Tree of Wisdom,
    He sat Himself with folded hands and feet;
    With focused mind and perfect wisdom,
    The world's deliverance our Teacher had attained.
    
    We rejoice, we rejoice,
    The house of life lay broken;
    We rejoice, we rejoice,
    Our Lord emerged triumphant.

    
    Between two sala trees, in meditation, 
    Submerged in calmness our Teacher passed away 
    "Compounded things are all so transient, 
    Your own salvation with diligence you work".
    
    These were words of our Teacher, 
    His final words to us; 
    The Dhamma and the Discipline,  
    To guide us when He is gone.

    The Dhamma and the Discipline,  
    To guide us when He is gone.

Klicken Sie hier, um "The Light of Asia" zu hören

Quelle der mp3-Datei: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/2992/hymn.html. -- Zugriff am 2005-04-26


4. Die Zeit der Institutionalisierung


1902 -- 21. Mai (Visakha Puja)


Abb.: Ananda Mettey
[Bildquelle: Tricycle : the Buddhist review. -- ISSN 1055-484X. -- Vol. VII, No. 2 (Winter 1997). -- S. 25.]

Allan Benett McGregor wird in Birma (in Akyab) auf einer Dampfbarkasse (um wegen der Rechtskräftigkeit der Simâ Misshelligkeiten zu vermeiden) zum Mönch geweiht in einem großartigen Fest, Ordensname: Ananda Metteya.

Siehe: Payer, Alois <1944 - >: Materialien zum Neobuddhismus.  -- 2. International. -- 3. Die ersten europäischen Mönche und Versuche der Gründung eines Vihâra auf dem europäischen Festland. -- URL: http://www.payer.de/neobuddhismus/neobud0203.htm

1904-08-03


Abb.: Einmarsch der britischen Truppen in Lhasa, 1904-08-03
[Bildquelle: Tricycle : the Buddhist review. -- ISSN 1055-484X. -- Vol. IX, No. 2 (Winter 1999). -- S. 79.]

Sir Francis Younghusband (1863 - 1942) marschiert in Lhasa, Tibet ein

"Sir Francis Younghusband (* 1863 in Murree, Indien; † 1942) war ein englischer Offizier und Forschungsreisender.

Younghusband kam als Sohn einer britischen Familie in Indien auf die Welt.

Er durchquerte 1887 die Mandschurei und überquerte als erster Europäer den Karakorum über den Muztagh-Pass. Zwischen 1889 und 1895 war er an mehreren Expeditionen in die nordwestinidischen Gebirge beteiligt. Während er sich auf einer dieser Expeditionen befand, entstand in Indien das Gerücht, er sei als Spion von Russen ermordet worden, was beinahe einen Krieg zwischen Indien und dem zaristischen Russland ausgelöst hätte.

Ende 1903 wurde er von Lord Curzon nach Tibet geschickt, um Handelsbeziehungen mit dem Land aufzunehmen. Diese Bemühungen sollten möglichen russischen Bestrebungen zuvorkommen. Da sich der Dalai Lama weigerte, mit den Briten zu verhandeln, zog Younghusband eine blutige Spur bis nach Lhasa. Dort wurde den Tibetern ein Handelsvertrag und ein britischer Stützpunkt in Lhasa aufgezwungen. Von den Russen fand Younghusband kein Spur. Auf dieser Reise verwendete er das Kartenmaterial, das der Engländer Nain Singh 40 Jahre zuvor erstellt hatte.

Nach dem ersten Weltkrieg stattete er Expeditionen in den Himalaya aus. Als er 1922 vom Lawinentod von sieben Sherpas bei einer der Expeditionen hörte, meinte er: "Gott sei Dank ging kein europäisches Leben dabei zugrunde."

Später verfasste er einige Expeditionsberichte und beschäftigte sich mit religiösen und philosophischen Fragen. Er unterstützte die Bestrebungen Indiens für die Selbstständigkeit. 1936 gründete er den Weltkongress des Glaubens.

Younghusband war auch sportlich aktiv, eine Zeit lang hielt er den Weltrekord über die 300-Yard-Strecke."

[Quelle: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Younghusband. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-14]

"In July 1903, Britain sent Commander Francis Younghusband and J. Claude White, the British administrative commissioner in Sikkim, to lead about 300 British troops into Gampa Zong of Tibet via northern Sikkim, claiming this force had come to negotiate with the Tibetan authorities.

Tibetan authorities were indignant about this. The 13th Dalai Lama was staunch in resisting the invading British. And the majority of the Tibetan government officials and lamas with the three major monasteries opposed negotiations with Britain. They strongly demanded the British troops withdraw from Gampa Zong. A small number of Tibetan officials, who had been bought by the British, stood for talks with the British. They included Galoon Xazha Benjor Doje. Angry, the 13th Dalai Lama dismissed four Tibetan officials who stood for talks with the British and detained them in Norbu Lingka for interrogation. They were Galoon Xazha Benjor Doje, Galoon Xoikang Cedain Wangqug, Galoon Lama Qamqen Ngawang Baisang and Galoon Zhasa Horkang Soinam Doje. Under the leadership of the 13th Dalai Lama, the local government of Tibet mobilized troops and the militia and sent them to Gampa Zong to fight the invading British.

The British troops were entrenched in Gampa Zong for months. They conducted espionage activities in the surrounding area. This diverted the attention of the local government of Tibet. Taking advantage of this change, Younghusband retreated suddenly from Gampa Zong to northern Sikkim in October. Soon after this, Britain rushed 3,000 troops to the area north of Mount Lungdo. Led by J. Macdonald and Younghusband, they moved northward. The advance troops led by Younghusband secretly crossed the Zhelilha mountain pass on December 12, advanced through Rinqengang and Chunpi, captured Pagri on December 21 and occupied Duina on January 4, 1904. The advance troops were followed closely by troops led by J. Macdonald.

The Tibetan government rushed some 1,000 crack forces, led by Duiboin Generals Ladingse and Namseling, to Duina and Doqen, and mobilized 2,000 more Tibetan troops and numerous militiamen.

In early March 1904, the British invaders confronted the Tibetan troops in Qoimishango and Gulhu, which are located between Duina and Doqen. The British troops claimed they would advance further so as to be able to directly deal with the Tibetan government, while the Tibetan troops claimed that the meeting would be possible only when the British troops had retreated to Sikkim. They each refused to budge. At this point, the British troops demanded on-the-spot negotiations with the Tibetan troops. The Gaxag government advised the Tibetan troops to enter into negotiations with the British troops and then launch an attack according to their original plan should the talks break down. Thus, Ladingse and Namseling invited the British representatives to Qoimishango for negotiations.

When Younghusband and others came to the negotiation table, the British troops surrounded the Tibetan troops in a tight battle formation. The situation was favorable tactically only for the British troops. When Younghusband and other British military representatives met with Ladingse and Namseling, they noted: "Since we came for peace talks, our troops will remove the bullets from their rifles as a token of our sincerity. But you should put out the fuses of your fire arms." At the order of Younghusband, the British troops present on the occasion each removed one bullet from their rifles but, immediately, loaded another without the Tibetans becoming aware. The Tibetans were not aware of the danger, simply because they had no rifles and so had no idea how to use them. Thinking the British rifles were empty, the Tibetan troops put out the fuses of their fire arms.

After the negotiation had gone on for only 15 minutes, one British officer drew his pistol and killed Ladingse, Namseling and other Tibetan representatives. The British troops attacked the Tibetan troops, killing more than 500 in just a few minutes. The surviving Tibetan troops fought hand-to-hand with the British troops. Although they killed some British, they were routed. During the battle, some 1,000 Tibetans were killed, and only 380 won a narrow escape. The springs at Qoimishango ran red with Tibetan blood.

The British troops continued to advance northward from Qoimishango. All along the way, they set fire to Buddhist monasteries, ransacked the homes of the Tibetans and performed other evil deeds. Tibetan troops, monks and militiamen, totaling some 4,000, exploited the perilous geography, intercepting the invading British troops at the Zaqam Valley between Kangma and Shaogang. On April 9, when some 30 mounted British troops entered the valley, they were ambushed and killed by the Tibetans armed with fire arms, clubs and stones. The British troops rushed forward to fight the Tibetans with rifles, machine guns and cannon. The fighting lasted one day, claiming a loss of 280 British soldiers and 150 Tibetans. The Tibetan troops and militiamen failed to stop the invading British troops.

The British reached Gyangze on April 11. Younghusband left to garrison Gyanglu and Pala villages at the head of 500 troops, while Macdonald, faced with food shortages, brought his troops back to Yadong. This was closely followed by the establishment of British logistics posts in the area between Yadong and Gyangze. In early May, 360 British troops left Gyangze to attack the Tibetan troops in Kari La, in the direction of Nanggarze. Only 130 or more British troops stayed to guard Gyangze. Under the cover of night, more than 1,000 Tibetan troops attacked the British stationed in Pala Village, narrowly failing to kill Younghusband. The British only managed to extricate themselves when other British troops at Kari La came to their rescue. On May 26, further British reinforcements rushed to Gyangze from Yadong, recapturing Pala Village.

The local government of Tibet managed to amass about 16,000 troops, monks and militia, armed with home-made weapons, to reinforce the defenses at Gyangze. Part of the Tibetan army, led by Galoon Yutog, the commander-in-chief of the Tibetan army, was stationed in Yade, Nyemo, as the first defense line; and part of the Tibetan army was deployed in Xigaze and Rinbung, and also in Nanggarze as the second defense line. The Tibetan militia, led by Duiboin Minglingba, set out to attack the British logistics posts via Nanggarze, Ralung and Kamma.

Younghusband returned to Yadong from Gyangze in early June, where he plotted with Macdonald to attack Lhasa to force the Tibetan government to surrender. To this end, the British Indian government reinforced them. Macdonald and Younghusband finally set out for Gyangze in late June.

At this time, the Tibetan militia, led by Duiboin Minglingba, had seized the NaiÕnying Monastery located between Gyangze and Shaogang, posing a serious threat to the British logistics posts in the surrounding area. The militia from Gongbo ambushed and killed some 30 British soldiers in the area between Kamma and Shaogang. To ensure the smooth operation of their logistic stations, the British troops left Shaogang and Gyanglu, launching a pincer attack at the Nai'nying Monastery. Tibetan militia braved the British heavy artillery, fighting the invaders tenaciously. Hand-to-hand fighting broke out when the British broke the monastery walls. Ngada Nyima Zhaba and his brother, heads of the Gongbo militia, and Dordobur, a militia from the Kam area, killed a British officer and some 120 of the invaders. But they themselves died a heroic death during the battle, their blood dripping from the upper steps of the monastery.

People of Ngada Nyima Zhaba's hometown--Joimo Town, Nyingchi County--hold horse racing, archery and other activities on the first day of the 10th month of each Tibetan year (the day of Ngada Nyima Zhaba leaving to fight the British invaders) in memory of the two heroic brothers.

British gunfire caused heavy losses on the part of the Tibetan militiamen, who were forced to withdraw from Nai'nying Monastery. The British ransacked the monastery, taking away all cultural relics and other valuables before burning it down.

The British reinforcements joined forces with the troops formerly stationed in Gyangze. They seized control of the area south of the Nyang Qu River. Prior to their attack on downtown Gyangze, British troops took the Zijing Monastery, northwest of Gyangze, with a view to cutting off Gyangze's ties with Xigaze. More than 1,000 gilded statues of Buddha, large amounts of satins embroidered with images of Buddha, Gangyur and other Buddhist classics, and gold, silver and bronze objects were looted.

The British then surrounded Gyangze from the east, south and northwest, and cut off water supply to Zongshan Hill in Gyangze in preparation for a concentrated attack on the downtown area.

The 13th Dalai Lama sent Galoon Yutog and some others to negotiate with Younghusband in Gyangze on July 1. The British general demanded the Tibetan troops pull out of Gyangze before July 5, but the demand was rejected. At noon on July 5, the British troops started their attack.

The British troops made a breach of the Gyangze county castle with heavy gunfire, and organized assaults. The Tibetan troops and militiamen retaliated bravely. They treated the charging British troops with powder guns and stones. When drinking water had been finished, they sneaked out under the cloak of darkness to fetch muddy water from a pit at the foot of the hill. When the pit dried up, they drank their own urine. Even under the most difficult conditions, the Tibetans never wavered. When their powder had run out, they fought with knives, spears and clubs, suffering a heavy toll. Finally, they managed to break the British encirclement in the north and southwest and continued fighting from the Palkor Monastery. A British army reporter named E. Candler wrote later that, in the face of British shrapnel, machine guns and rifles, the Tibetan army and militiamen braved death to fight back with stones. When Gyangze castle was captured, Palkor Monastery also fell. The British occupants took away all the precious relics and Buddhist scriptures, turned the Buddhist halls into dining rooms, and drove nails into the prayer wheels to turn them into food conveyors although the Tibetans considered all of these as holy objects. The battle caused heavy loss to the Tibetan army and militiamen.

With the fall of Gyangze, Galoon Yutog deployed the survivors in Kari La, Nanggarze, Nyangsoi La and Kamba La. On July 14, Macdonald set out from Gyangze to Lhasa at the head of an army of 4,000. On the 17th, they were confronted in Kari La. The British fought and broke the defense line of the 1,000 Tibetans and reached Yamzhog Yumco Lake. After this, they met little resistance from the routed Tibetans, and finally entered Lhasa on August 3.

Under the threat from the British and with the pressure from High Commissioner You Tai, the local government of Tibet signed the Treaty of Lhasa with the British on September 7. Under this unequal treaty,

  1. Tibet was not allowed to cede any land and mineral resources to any foreign country. This brought Tibet firmly into the British sphere of influence;
  2. Tibet had to pay a war indemnity to Britain;
  3. Tibet was required to raze all forts and fortifications in area from India to Gyangze and Lhasa;
  4. Tibet had to open Yadong, Gyangze and Gartog as commercial ports;
  5. Tibet was required to accept the 1890 treaty delineating the boundary between Tibet and Sikkim; and
  6. Britain was allowed to station troops in Yadong.

Although the Qing imperial court refused to accept the treaty, it was forced to sign the Treaty of Peking with the British in 1906. The Treaty of Peking was drafted on the basis of the Treaty of Lhasa, with the addition that British India personnel had the right to deal with foreign affairs in the three commercial ports in Tibet, erect post offices and postal stations between Yadong and Gyangze, and station troops in Yadong and Gyangze. These additional privileges enjoyed by British India were, in the final analysis, rooted in the 1904 Treaty of Lhasa.

Following the signing of the Treaty of Lhasa, the British troops, who had killed 4,000-5,000 Tibetans and looted and burned down many lamaseries, returned victoriously from Lhasa to India in mid- and late September.

In his book entitled Twenty Years in Tibet, David Macdonald recorded what British troops had brought back from Tibetan lamaseries: In January 1905 I was sent to Calcutta to categorize books and treasures, which others and I gathered in Tibet and were brought back using more than 400 mules. They included Buddhist classics, statues of Buddha, religious works, helmets, weapons, books and ceramics. The bulk of ceramics were sent to specialists for examination. All these treasures were formerly preserved in the India Museum, where I worked, and later in the British Museum, the Indian Museum, the Bodleian Library and the Indian Administrative Library. When I was categorizing them, George Nathaniel Curzon came for visit on several occasions in the capacity of the viceroy of India. He chose a few pieces he favored the most for collection by the Calcutta Victoria Memorial Hall. (Selected Materials on the History of Tibet, p.210)

The above is a brief account of Britain's second invasion of Tibet in 1904. As it took place in the Tibetan Year of Wood Dragon, the Tibetans call it the "War in Wood Dragon Year."

[Quelle: http://www.tibet-china.org/historical_status/english/e0502.html. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-14]


1907-04-28


Abb.: Plakat [Bildquelle: http://www.aimwell.org/assets/Honour%20Thy%20Fathers.pdf. -- Zugriff am 2003-06-17]

Zwei Buddhisten -- R. J. Jackson und J. R. Pain -- und halten im Hyde-Park zwei Vorträge an das Publikum, diese Vorträge werden gedruckt von einer Buddhist Society of England. [Buddhistische Warte 1 (1907). -- S. 124].

"R.J. Jackson, who died but recently, attended a meeting in Regent’s Park at which a Cambridge Senior Wrangler, a Mr. More, spoke on Buddhism. Interested at once, he made enquiries and was told to read The Light of Asia. Some time later he made the acquaintance of Col J.R. Pain, an ex-soldier from Burma. Both began to speak at open-air meetings, and later they actually published a pamphlet giving the substance of these talks. They heard of Ananda Metteyya’s work in Burma and got in touch with him. In 1907 they met Dr Ernest Rost of the Indian Medical Service, then home on leave from Rangoon, and between them they opened a bookshop at 14 Bury Street, near the British Museum. The books were placed in the window to attract enquiries, and lectures were given in the little room at the back of the shop. Further lectures were organised in the parks and a portable platform painted bright orange and bearing the device, "The Word of the Glorious Buddha is sure and everlasting," was the centre of a considerable audience."

[Humphreys, Christmas <1901 - 1983>: Sixty years of Buddhism in England (1907-1967): a history and a survey. -- London : Buddhist Society, 1968. -- 84 S. -- S. 3.]

1907-10-03

25 Personen, Buddhisten und solche die am Studium des Buddhismus interessiert waren gründen die Buddhist Society of Great Britain and Ireland und bilden ein fünfköpfiges Komitee zur Ausarbeitung einer Satzung usw. Gründungspräsident: T. W. Rhys-Davids (1842-1922). Für die Satzung wurde die Satzung des Buddhasasana Samagama Rangoon Vorbild, aber modifiziert. Die Gesellschaft ist dem Buddhasasana Samagama affiliiert. [Dies wurde bei der Jahresversammlung 1912 bestritten und aus der Satzung gestrichen. S. The Buddhist review. -- 4 (1912). -- S. 191]. Schon am 26. Okt. 1907 war Gründungsversammlung.

Die Gründungsmitglieder lassen sich in in drei Kategorien einteilen:

1908 -- 17 Februar

Die Buddhist Society of Great Britain and Ireland  übernimmt die vom Buddhasasana Samagama in London gemieteten Räumlichkeiten und den Buchladen, gibt diesen aber wieder bald ab. [The Buddhist review. -- 1 (1909). -- S. 1-5].

Aus der Satzung der Buddhist Society of Great Britain and Ireland:

"Objects. -- The Buddhist Society of Great Britain and Ireland has for its objects the extension of the knowledge of the tenets of Buddhism, and the promotion aof the study of Pali, a language allied to Sanskrit, in which the Buddhist Scriptures were oiriginally written.

...

Ecclecticism. -- Membership of the Society oes not imply that the holder of such membership is a Buddhist, but only that he or she is interested in some branch of the Society's work. It is the belief of the promotors of this Society that an extension of the system of ethics, philosophy, and religion known as Buddhism will prove a remedy for many of the evils of the present age.

Attitude of Buddhism towards Questions of the Day. -- The teachings of Buddhism being against the taking of life, their general acceptance would involve the substitution of arbitration for war, of imprisonment for capital punishment, and the abolition of the slaughter of animals. The ethical system of Buddhism further prohibits the use of intoxicating liquors, one of the chief curses of this age, the use of alcohol alone being responsible for over 25 per cent of lunatics in the asylums, to say nothing of its effects on the descendendants of those afflicted by this deadly habit. Buddhism, again, is the sole great religion of the world which places men and women on the same footing; many of the great disciples of the Buddha were women, and in Burma and Siam, where Buddhism is the dominant factor of the national life, women have more freedom than in any other Oriental country. The spread of Buddhist tenets would undoubtedly tend to do away with the injurious distinctions of sex that prevail in the West.

Psychology and the Practice of Meditation. -- In its more philosophic aspects Buddhism exhibits, together with an independence singularly in accordance with the more advanced phases of modern thought, a system of mental training, by the practice of meditation, which, were it more generally known and followed, would be of greatest value to mankind. In this direction much remains to be done, for of the large collection of philosophic treatises (called Abhidhamma in Pali) only one (see Buddhist Psychology, by Mrs. Rhys Davids) has been translated. This Society hopes to be able to promote the translation of much of the untranslated portion of Abhidhamma, and thus to open for the world a mine of interest to the psychologist, the natural philosopher, and those interested in the practice of mental training by means of the concentration of mind.

Method of Promoting these Views. -- These subjects will be dealt with by competent authors in future publications; and, as far as the Society's means will permit, it is intended to send copies of these publications free to Public Libraries and similars Institutions, in order to bring the system called Buddhism -- which is generally condemned by those most ignorant of its tenets -- fairly before the reading public."

[The Buddhist review. -- 1 (1909). -- S. 68-69].

Auch diese Gesellschaft betonte ganz scharf, dass sie nichts mit den Theosophen zu tun hat. 1909 hatte die Gesellschaft bereits ca. 150 Mitglieder. [The Buddhist review. -- 1 (1909). -- S. 291]. 1913 waren es 230 Mitglieder. [The Buddhist review. -- 5 (1913). -- S. 229].

1908 -04-23 bis 1908-10-02


Abb.: Ananda Metteya (Allan Bennett) [Bildquelle: http://www.golden-dawn.org/biobennett.html. -- Zugriff am 2003-06-17]

Ânanda Metteya (1872-1923) besucht mit den principal officers des Samagama -- u.a. mit Mrs. Mah May Hlâ Oung mit Mann, eine reiche Birmanin, die u.a. in Rangun 1897 die beiden einzigen buddhistischen Schulen stiftete und eine Gesellschaft gegen Kindersterblichkeit [The Buddhist review. -- 2 (1910). -- S. 240-242; 318f.], ihr Mann finanzierte den ganzenTrip -- Großbritannien, um zu sehen welche Chancen für Buddhismus bestehen. Am 2. Okt. 1908 kehrt er wieder nach Burma zurück.

"The First Mission to England. The Work of the new Buddhist Society

The Mission consisted of Ananda Metteyya, 'Secretary-General of the International Buddhist Society of Rangoon,' Mrs Hla Oung, Hon. Treasurer, and her son and his wife.


Abb.: Dr. Ernest Ross (1872 - 1930)

They were welcomed by Dr Rost, the Hon. Secretary of the Society, whose spade-work in preparation for the arrival of the Mission made much that followed possible. No sooner, however, had the Mission landed than the difficulties attendant on a member of the Sangha keeping his Bhikkhu vows in a Western city became embarrassingly apparent. He was not allowed to sleep in a house where a woman slept; hence the need for two houses at Barnes. His food could only be eaten at specified hours, with nothing later than noon. He slept on a bed on the floor, to avoid breaking the Precept against "high and soft beds," and in every other way tried to preserve the ascetic dignity of his adopted life. The most awkward situations, however, arose not hi the house but out of it. He was not allowed to handle money, so could never travel alone. But he wore at all times the bright yellow robes of the Sangha, and such a garb brought wondering crowds and ribald comment. It was therefore arranged that he should be taken to and from meetings in a cab. But the Vinaya rules, framed in days when to ride behind a horse spelt pomp and circumstance, forbade such a method of locomotion, and had not motor cars begun to invade the streets it is difficult to see what the harassed lay supporters would have devised.

Those who stared at Ananda at this time had good reason to stare. He was then thirty-six years of age, tall, slim, graceful and dignified. The deep-set eyes and somewhat ascetic features, surmounted by the shaven head made a great impression on all who met him, and all who remember him speak of his pleasing voice and beautiful enunciation. It seems that his conversation was always interesting ; in his lighter moments he showed a delightful sense of humour, while his deep comprehension of the Dhamma, his fund of analogy from contemporary science, and power and range of thought combined to form a most exceptional personality. At eighteen, however, he was already chronically asthmatic and this weakness dogged him all his life. He was given drugs to relieve the agony of his attacks, and given his own supply. If he became more and more dependent on the drugs who shall blame him, but ill-health was of course no help to the work of an active missionary.

The Work of the Mission

When his asthma was not troubling him his output of work was immense. By correspondence and constant interviews he collected a body of scholars about the Mission who were enthusiastic supporters of his work. He formally admitted into the fold of Buddhism all who wished to be received, and Francis Payne, with his wife and children, claimed to be the first so admitted. He also gave lectures, both at the shop and elsewhere. Unfortunately he was a poor speaker. As Dr Greenly put it,

"Nature, when enriching him with so many gifts, man of science, thinker, writer, not to mention the originality, daring and leadership which could conceive such an enterprise, had fatally omitted the essential gift of eloquence.''

It seems that he lacked the gift of gauging his audience, and would select an abstruse subject for a class of beginners, while his style was too involved.

"Worst of all he read his addresses. We sat almost in the front row, close to him, and do not remember that he ever lifted his eyes from his paper."

As against this, it is pointed out that the Bhikkhu would answer questions at the close of a meeting, clearly and fluently. It is therefore all the more regrettable that he never learnt to speak from notes alone in his actual address.

The Mission returns

All too quickly the time allotted to the Mission wore to its close, and Ananda Metteyya sailed for Rangoon from Liverpool with Dr Rost on 2nd October 1908. At an interview given to a Rangoon paper on his arrival,

"the Bhikkhu expressed himself highly gratified with the work that had been done."

Gratified perhaps, for much had been done— satisfied, no. His health had suffered, not improved, his money was exhausted, and the teaching had not been accepted with such enthusiasm as he had hoped. In an "Open letter to the Buddhists of England," written in December, he appealed to all interested to support the work of the Society in London, and described with great eloquence the glory of the Message of which the West had such immediate need, but although the will to return was unabated, his health was such as to make a further attempt impossible. In Burma he worked on his excellent magazine Buddhism, and found time to write for The Buddhist Review. In 1914 he came to England on his way to join a sister in California, but his state of health prevented him obtaining an American visa, and he spent the war with friends in Liverpool. In 1920 he came to London, and even managed to lecture. He became part Editor of The Buddhist Review, and did his best to inspire the dying Society to fresh endeavour. For most of its life, however, the Society had to carry on without the active help of a man whose vision and tenacity of purpose had brought it to birth."

[Humphreys, Christmas <1901 - 1983>: Sixty years of Buddhism in England (1907-1967): a history and a survey. -- London : Buddhist Society, 1968. -- 84 S. -- S. 6f.]

1909


Abb.: Titelleiste
[Bildquelle: Tricycle : the Buddhist review. -- ISSN 1055-484X. -- Vol. VII, No. 2 (Winter 1997). -- S. 27.]

The Buddhist review : the organ of the Buddhist Society of Great Britain and Ireland. -- 1(1909) -11(1921) (damit Erscheinen eingestellt)

"The Buddhist Review

On 1st January 1909 was born the first Buddhist periodical to appear in this country, The Buddhist Review, published by Probsthain at 41 Great Russell Street. Captain Ellam was the first Editor, and under various Editors, including Francis Payne, Dr Greenly, Dudley Wright, Howell Smith, Sir D. B. Jayatilaka, and at the end, Ananda Metteyya himself, it appeared for eleven quarterly volumes and the first of a twelfth, the last to appear being published in January 1922. The first issue contained seventy pages of material, including articles by the President, the Editor, Ananda Metteyya, Francis Payne, E. J. Mills, Mrs Rhys Davids and others, and a high standard of writing both of subject and form was kept up for many years. Contributions began to arrive from all over the world, and within a year we find articles by Dr D. T. Suzuki from Japan, the Bhikkhu Silacara, (né M'Kechnie), from Burma and from the famous Tibetan explorer, Mme David-Neel. As early as the second issue we find news of the Anagarika Dharmapala from Ceylon, and a few months later he contributes a long article on Buddhism. Although, as was to be expected when the Mission came from Burma and the President of the Society was an authority on the Pali Canon, the lectures and articles were predominantly Theravada, yet the Mahayana point of view was never excluded, and a tolerance of outlook was one of the brightest features of the Society's career.

The Review was sold at a shilling a copy, the first issue of a thousand copies costing about £25. Even with this margin between cost of production and selling price the issue resulted in great loss. In February 1909, Ellam was replaced by Francis Payne, who carried on the work of Hon. Secretary and Editor for the next four years.

In March 1909, Captain Rolleston raised at a Council Meeting 'the desirability of issuing a pamphlet explaining briefly the tenets of Buddhism.' This might be claimed as the precursor of Twelve Principles of Buddhism, published by the present Society in 1945."

[Humphreys, Christmas <1901 - 1983>: Sixty years of Buddhism in England (1907-1967): a history and a survey. -- London : Buddhist Society, 1968. -- 84 S. -- S. 10f.]

Aus dem Artikel: Followers of the Buddha / by Ananda Metteya:

"If we [Western practitioners] be indeed worthy of the name of Followers of the Buddha, it behooves us, first and foremost, to understand the full meaning that that title has for us; and, not less essentially, to consider what course of action we must follow, if we are to make the most of the great opportunity that our Karma now has brought to us.

All that remains to us is Action—not the vain claim that we are Followers of the Buddha, whilst yet our lives are empty of the pity and the love and the helpfulness He taught, but action true, following to the best of our small powers; it is not vain talk and futile declamation, nor even, by itself, mere learning in the ancient texts, that make a man our Master's Follower—but love for all, but work, but life.

So let whoso shall make that claim content himself with that—your privilege it is to do the work, to help the spreading of the Law of Love; to live according to the Buddha's message. Suffer no attack, and no futility, to alter in the least your contribution to the welfare of Humanity, remembering that the world can only judge Buddhism by your actions, by your love, your life. So may you help to render to the Western World that greatest of all services whereof it stands so sorely now in need: the spreading of the great Religion which, from the small beginning now made, will yet grow till all the thinking West stands where you stand today; and which in very fact is the sole cure for all its manifold sufferings— sole cure for its deep-rooted self-idolatry which, as Arnold has so accurately put it, "Crying 'I,' I would have the world say 'I.'"

And so, remembering in daily practice of Right Mindfulness, who and what you are—what your high privilege, and what your Hope in life—bear ever in your hearts the last, great exhortation that the Master uttered, when, at the close of that long life which did so much to change the history of mankind, He passed away into that utter passing which leaves no remnant of the self behind it: —"Lo! now, O brothers, I exhort ye! Decay is inherent in all the Tendencies—wherefore by earnestness work out your Liberation."

—Ananda Metteyya (Allan Bennett)
London, the 15th Waning of Potthapada, 2,452
(September 24,1908)"

[Zitiert in: Tricycle : the Buddhist review. -- ISSN 1055-484X. -- Vol. VII, No. 2 (Winter 1997). -- S. 27.]

1909

Im Oktoberheft von The Buddhist review [1. -- S. 247-250] ruft Alexandra David [-Neel] (1868-1969), Tunis zu einer internationalen Vereinigung aller Buddhistischen Gesellschaften auf, da die kleine Gesellschaften dahin vegetieren werden, wenn sie sich nicht -- unter Beibehalt ihrer Autonomie -- zusammenschließen. So sollen sich Gelehrte, Dilettanten und Mystiker zusammenschließen.

1911 -- 13. Mai

300-400 Personen sind bei Vesakh-Feier in London anwesend. [Bericht: Buddha day in London. -- In: The Buddhist review. -- 3 (1911). -- S. 205-212].

1911

Ein eigener Bhikkhu Fund wird gegründet, um einen Bhikkhu in Großbritannien erhalten zu können.

1911

Die Gesellschaft erhält in Galle, Ceylon eine Zweiggesellschaft mit 31 Mitgliedern. [The Buddhist review. -- 4(1912). -- S. 196].

1912

Anlässlich der Jahresversammlung wird betont, dass die Gesellschaft dem britischen Publikum die reine ursprüngliche Lehre des Buddha darstellen will.

1912

Ein Ceylonese bietet an, alle Ausgaben zu tragen, dass ein Engländer nach Ceylon kommen kann, als Mönch ordiniert wird und als Missionar zurückkehrt. Der Ceylonese befürchtet nämlich, dass es sehr schwierig sein würde, einen orientalischen Mönch mit den nötigen Qualifikationen zu finden. [The Buddhist review. -- 5 (1913). -- S. 57].

1914

Allan Bennett McGregor (Ânanda Metteya) (1872-1923) (der als erster Ausländer Thera wurde) muss aus Gesundheitsgründen das Ordensgewand ablegen und Birma verlassen, wird von seiner Schwester nach Kalifornien eingeladen, bekommt aber wegen seiner schlechten Gesundheit Einreiseverbot in die USA und landet in London, wo er auf Unterstützung angewiesen ist. Damit muss er aus Gesundheitsgründen seinen Plan aufgeben, den buddhistischen Orden in den Westen zu tragen,

1914 bis 1918

Erster Weltkrieg

"The War

The effects of the outbreak of war were complex. There was the inevitable difference of opinion about the Buddhist's attitude to war. Should he accept the "national karma" of the race in which he had been born, and then fight his country's enemies, without malice yet with all the courage of his will, or should he take the morally courageous course of following the precepts of his adopted faith and refusing to take life at any cost, even at the forfeit of his own ? Some chose one way, some the other. Some volunteered and fought; some of the women did war-work according to their several capacities. Frank Balls, the General Secretary, was an outstanding example of the truly conscientious objector. He was in poor health at the time, and starred in the Civil Service as "indispensable," but proved his moral courage by maintaining his opposition to all forms of violence in the face of intense unpopularity."

[Humphreys, Christmas <1901 - 1983>: Sixty years of Buddhism in England (1907-1967): a history and a survey. -- London : Buddhist Society, 1968. -- 84 S. -- S. 13.]

1915

"43 Penywern Road

The second of 'The Two Steps Forward' proved to be a mistake, and one which was unfortunately repeated in 1925 by the Anagarika Dharmapala. This was to move the headquarters of the Society to a more permanent home, wherein all its functions, meetings, library, meditation room, museum and offices, could be gathered under one roof. The idea was of course admirable, but the choice of site was most unwise. 43 Penywern Road, Earl's Court, S.W., was an excellent house for the purpose, but it was then too distant from the centre of London to serve the needs it was taken to supply. There was plenty of room for all requirements, and the drawing room, used as a lecture room, would hold a hundred persons. There was even room on the top floor for a Bhikkhu, and efforts were made to bring the Bhikkhu Silacara to England for a while to give the Society's work a fresh impetus. He, however, was not willing to come. Differences arose in the Council as to the use to which the house should be put when the Society was not using it, but in the end, even for Buddhist meetings, the house was little used at all."

[Humphreys, Christmas <1901 - 1983>: Sixty years of Buddhism in England (1907-1967): a history and a survey. -- London : Buddhist Society, 1968. -- 84 S. -- S. 13]

1917 (oder vorher)

Da Zweifel aufkamen, ob die Buddhist Society of Great Britain and Ireland (Incorporated) befugt ist, den Bhikkhu-Fund zu verwalten, gründen einige Mitglieder die Buddhist Association in England, um den Bhikkhu-Fund zu verwalten und einen Mönch in England zu empfangen. [The Buddhist review. -- 9 (1917). -- S. 74].

1918

Während des Krieges ging die Wirksamkeit der Buddhist Society sehr zurück, manchmal fast auf den Nullpunkt. Deshalb Aufruf in der Buddhist review [10 (1918). - S. 179]:

"Die Aufgabe, die Botschaft des Dhamma zu verbreiten liegt zuerst bei denen, die durch Geburt das Privileg geerbt haben, den Namen des Meisters zu tragen. Diese Aufgabe gehört also als Geburtsrecht den Buddhisten in Burma, Siam, Japan und Ceylon. Die Buddhist Society hat den Weg geebnet und die Maschinerie für das große Unternehmen bereitgestellt... Wir lenken die spezielle Aufmerksamkeit der Buddhisten in Burma und Ceylon auf diese große Aufgabe. Ihrer großzügigen Unterstützung verdankt die Society schon viel. ... Das Notwendigste ist selbstverständlich Geld. Aber nicht weniger dringlich sind Arbeiter. Wenn Burma oder Ceylon ein oder zwei junge Männer senden kann -- ernst und fromm, gebildet in Englisch und bewandert im Dhamma -- um wirksame Propaganda unter der Anleitung der Society ingang zu setzen, dann sind wir sicher, dass Erfolg erreicht wird."

1920


Abb.: Christmas Humphreys

Christmas Humphreys (1901 - 1983) wird Mitglied der Adyar Theosophical Society.

"It was about this time that I entered the Buddhist movement, and can speak henceforth from firsthand knowledge.

My interest in Buddhism dates from the day when I wandered into a bookshop, near the British Museum, and bought a secondhand copy of Coomaraswamy's Buddha and the Gospel of Buddhism, which bears the date 26/8/18, when I was seventeen. Having discovered that I could with ease sit in a cross-legged position for meditation, and that I seemed to 'remember' the principles of the Dhamma almost as fast as I read them, I lightly regarded Buddhism as an old friend once more encountered, and on going up to Cambridge in 1919 at once made friends with students interested in Eastern ways of thought. I was introduced by one of them to Theosophy, joined the Adyar Theosophical Society in 1920, and continued my studies of Buddhism on the wider basis of its all-embracing platform. It was not for some years that I discovered that although Colonel Olcott, the first President of the Theosophical Society, had done marvels for the revival of Buddhism in the East, yet the Society which he helped to found was fast deserting the great principles which H. P. Blavatsky had founded it to proclaim. Having made this tardy discovery I left the Society, but I am yet unshaken in my view that the Theosophy of H. P. Blavatsky is an exposition of an Ancient Wisdom-Religion which antedates all known religions, and that Buddhism is the noblest and least-defiled of the many branches of the undying parent tree.

I must apologize for this personal digression, but in the history of any movement it will be found that the appearance of a new leader involves to some extent the introduction of the principles which form his character, and the part I have played in the Buddhist movement in this country can never be divorced from the Theosophical background against which I stand."

[Humphreys, Christmas <1901 - 1983>: Sixty years of Buddhism in England (1907-1967): a history and a survey. -- London : Buddhist Society, 1968. -- 84 S. -- S. 18]

"Justice Christmas Humphreys Q.C. (1901 - April 1983) lawyer, High Court judge, and founder of the Buddhist Society, London.

Humphreys founded the Buddhist Society in 1924. It is now one of the largest and oldest Buddhist organisations outside of Asia.

In 1934, he became Junior Treasury Counsel (a prosecutor) at London's Central Criminal Court, more commonly known as "the Old Bailey." In 1950, he became Senior Prosecuting Counsel. In 1955, he was selected as a Bencher, a principal officer of the Inn. In 1959 Humphreys was appointed as Queen's Counsel.

Humphreys' was appointed as a Recorder (magistrate with limited powers) for Deal, Kent from 1942 to 1956 and then for Guildford, Surrey from 1956 to 1968. He served as Deputy Chairman of the East Kent Quarter Sessions from 1947 to 1971.

In 1962 Humphreys became a Commissioner at the Old Bailey. He became an Additional Judge there in 1968 and served on the bench until his retirement in 1976.

Among the famous cases in which Humphreys were involved were the Evans-Christie cases and the Ruth Ellis case."

[Quelle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_Humphreys. -- Zugriff am 2005-04-26]

1921

Das letzte Heft von The Buddhist review erscheint.

1923-01-08 bis 1924-03


Abb.: Francis Payne [Bildquelle: http://www.aimwell.org/assets/Honour%20Thy%20Fathers.pdf. -- Zugriff am 2003-06-27]

Francis Payne (1870 - 1954) hält drei Reihen von Predigten

"But the old Society was dying, and the end came suddenly. Mills and Rhys Davids were dead ; Frank Balls was dead, and the ex-Bhikkhu, now out of the Robe, was dying too. Payne stepped into the breach. He was, as must be already clear, a remarkable figure. He was a natural scholar, with a large private library on religion and philosophy. He was above all a dedicated man, dedicated to the Buddha and to the task of making known to all who had need of it the Message of his master, the All-Enlightened One. He was ever the unashamed evangelist, announcing what he had found to be true to all mankind. "I love the Buddha," he would say to all prepared to listen. "'He was a very wonderful and lovely man." He wrote as well as he spoke, and I would that his painstaking efforts to rephrase available translations of some of the Pali scriptures into what he called Elizabethan English could be published even today. His enthusiasm was unceasing, and it is well that in 1923 it was still unexhausted. He began an astonishing series of lectures at the old Essex Hall in the Strand. A complete synopsis of the three series has survived, with some of the printed circulars used to make them known. The first series ran from 8th January to 28th May 1923, and during the series Ananda Metteyya died, on 9th March at the age of fifty. ...

Payne continued his lectures, the second series running from October 1923 to March 1924. Then at request he gave a further seven talks ending on 26th May 1924. As it happens the Buddhist Centre of the Theo-sophical Society, later to become a Lodge, and then the present Buddhist Society, was formed just one month later, and as I have found a letter from myself to Payne of September 1925, asking him "what of interest happened at the meeting of the Buddhist Society in June" it seems that the old Society had not by then been formally wound up. It follows that the old and the new overlapped sufficiently for me to say that the present Buddhist Society has its roots in 1907."

[Humphreys, Christmas <1901 - 1983>: Sixty years of Buddhism in England (1907-1967): a history and a survey. -- London : Buddhist Society, 1968. -- 84 S. -- S. 16f.]

1923-03-09

Allen Bennet McGregor (ehemals Ananda Metteya) (geb. 1872) stirbt.

"He died content, for in January Kegan Paul had published The Wisdom of the Aryas, a collection of papers written and delivered during the winter of 1917-18 to a private audience in a studio belonging to the writer, Clifford Bax, to whom the book is dedicated. It is his only published book but it is an admirable summary of the Message that he came to give. Payne was present when he died, and without hesitation prepared a Buddhist Funeral Service.

"We took the lovely passage describing the Buddha's last days, the very last words that the Master uttered, and then we added his beautiful passage on the nature of Nibbana, and those present by the graveside were deeply impressed."

The late Dr C. A. Hewavitarne cabled the money with which to buy a grave, and a plot, some fifteen feet square, was bought in Morden Cemetery. Flowers and incense were placed on the grave by members of the large gathering assembled, and so there passed from human sight a man whom history may some time honour for bringing to England as a living faith the Message of the All-Enlightened One."

[Humphreys, Christmas <1901 - 1983>: Sixty years of Buddhism in England (1907-1967): a history and a survey. -- London : Buddhist Society, 1968. -- 84 S. -- S. 16f.]

1924

Gründung einer Buddhist Lodge der Theosophical Society. Gründungspräsident: Christmas Humphreys (1901-1983).
[Zu C. Humphreys s.: Humphreys, Christmas: Both sides of the circle : the autobiography of Christmas Humphreys. -- London ; Boston : G. Allen & Unwin, 1978. -- 269 p., [8] leaves of plates : ill. ; 24 cm.].

1925

Zeitschrift: The Buddhist Lodge monthly bulletin. erscheint ab Oktober 1925.


Abb.: Einbandtitel

Ab 1926 gedruckt:
Buddhism in England / Buddhist Lodge, Theosophical Society in England. - 1.1926/27-17.1943.
Fortsetzung: The middle way.

1926 -- Januar

Dharmapala kommt nach London, um die British Buddhist Mission zu errichten. Er wird von der Buddhist Lodge der Theosophischen Gesellschaft unterstützt. Er gründet im Juli britischen Zweig der Maha Bodhi Society (bestand bis zum 2. Weltkrieg). Kehrt im Dezember nach Ceylon zurück, um Geld für die Mission in Großbritannien zu sammeln.

Darauf führt sich der London Buddhist Vihara zurück:

Webpräsenz: http://www.londonbuddhistvihara.co.uk/. -- Zugriff am 2005-05-13

"The London Buddhist Vihara is a leading centre for Theravada Buddhism. Formed in 1926 by Anagarika Dharmapala, the Vihara was the first Buddhist monastery to be established outside the continent of Asia. It has continued its missionary activities with resident bhikkhus (monks) from Sri Lanka throughout this period, with the exception of the 1940s due to World War II. The Vihara moved to Chiswick during 1964 when the Anagarika Dharmapala Trust of Sri Lanka purchased the freehold property at Heathfield Gardens. In 1994 the Vihara moved to new spacious premises in The Avenue, Chiswick. The Vihara is managed by the Anagarika Dharmapala Trust who also appoints the resident Dhammaduta Bhikkhus."

[Quelle: http://www.londonbuddhistvihara.co.uk/aboutus.htm. -- Zuriff am 2005-05-13] 

1926


Abb.: ™Logo der Buddhist Society, 2003

Die Buddhist Lodge absorbiert die frühere Buddhist Society und erhält wenig später den Namen Buddhist Society. Diese existiert bis heute. Finanziell wurde sie u.a. aus Burma unterstützt. [Webpräsenz: http://www.thebuddhistsociety.org/. -- Zugriff am 2005-04-26]

"The Buddhist Society was founded in 1924, by the late Christmas Humphreys, building on the pioneer work of the Buddhist Society of Great Britain and Ireland (1907 to 1925/6) and it is one of the oldest Buddhist societies in Europe. A lay organization, it is now the oldest Buddhist institution in the country. From its inception it has not been attached to any one school of Buddhism, remaining non-sectarian in character and open in principle to the teachings of all schools. Nor does the Society lend its official support to any activity of a political nature, whether national or international, this being proscribed by the terms of its constitution.

Christmas Humphreys, who was to become a High Court Judge, was President of the society he founded until his death in April 1983. Over the many years of his presidency the Society flourished and became widely known and respected, both at home and overseas. In 1956 the Society moved to its present address at Eccleston Square and in that same year participated in the Buddha Jayanti, the 2,500th anniversary of the Buddhas Enlightenment celebrations in India. In 1961 His Holiness the Dalai Lama became Patron to the Buddhist Society, the first in the West to be so honoured. During these especially fruitful years the Society received many distinguished visitors, including Her Majesty the Queen of Bhutan (1925), Their Majesties The King and Queen of Thailand (1966), and his Holiness the Dalai Lama in his capacity of Patron of the Buddhist Society (1973). Subsequently, His Holiness the Dalai Lama made a second visit in June 1996 as part of the Society's extended 70th anniversary celebrations.

In the early days, much emphasis was placed on publishing and some of the books published in that period remain in print today, notably our founder-presidents Buddhism: An Introduction and Guide, which, published by Penguin Books has been in continuous print since 1951. The tradition of publishing continues, with the Society acting the part of an occasional publisher. Especially noteworthy in this connection is the Society's internationally respected quarterly The Middle Way, as the earlier Buddhism in England, has a publishing history going back to 1926. "

[Quelle: http://www.thebuddhistsociety.org/aboutus/index.html. -- Zugriff am 2005-04-26]

1928

Dharmapala sendet 3 ceylonesische Mönche nach London, um einen westlichen Vihâra zu gründen, der bis 1939 existierte.

1933

Es erscheint der Tibetroman:

Hilton, James <1900-1954>: Lost horizon. -- London : Macmillan, 1933.  -- 281 S. ; 20 cm.

Gleichzeitig erscheint eine Ausgabe in New York bei W. Morrow.

"Lost Horizon is a fantasy adventure novel by James Hilton [1900 - 1954].

Hugh Conway, a veteran member of the British diplomatic service, finds inner peace, love, and a sense of purpose in Shangri-La, a utopian lamasery high in the Himalayas in Tibet whose inhabitants also enjoy longevity.

The book, published in 1933, was a huge success. In 1939 it was chosen to be the first novel published in paperback form, as Pocket Book #1. President Franklin D. Roosevelt named the Presidential hideaway in Maryland after Shangri-La (it has since been renamed Camp David.)

The book has been made into two films:

  • 1937, directed by Frank Capra
  • 1973, directed by Charles Jarrott (musical version)

A BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Hilton's novel in three hourly episodes was broadcast in 1981."

[Quelle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Horizon. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-06]

1938

U Thittila ( 1896 - 1997) kommt nach England.

 
Abb.: U Thittila

"Sayadaw U Thittila : Agga Maha Pandita, Sangha Mahanayaka ( 1896 / 3-1-1997 )

( Written By Mrs. Claudine W. Iggleden in 1985 )

The Venerable Sayadaw U Thittila, Aggamahapandita, author of the following talks on the Buddhist Teaching, was born in 1896 in the town of Pyawbwe, central Burma, the centre of a rice growing district.

His father died when he was only three years old. When he was nine his elder and only brother died, and when he was fourteen his elder and only sister also died. His mother married again, a physician, but his stepfather, too, died later. However, at the young age of seven or eight years he was even then regularly frequenting the local monastery, the Padigon Vihara, almost daily. where he and a friend were taught certain scriptures by the much respected and learned incumbent there, Sayadaw U Kavinda. By the age of ten he was learning to recite certain suttas, and by the age of fifteen when he was ordained a samanera he already knew by heart the primer to Abhidhamma studies, the Abhidhammatthasangaha, also the Mahasatipatthana Sutta and Kaccayana's Pali Grammar. It was, though, at the age of twelve when his teacher, the Ven. U Kavinda, took him to Mandalay to hear a sermon on Abhidhamma that he made the decision to become a bhikkhu. His full ordination at the age of twenty eventually took place much further south in lower Burma, at Moulmein in 1916, on which occasion Sayadaw U Okkantha was his preceptor. Prior to that, when he was still fifteen, he and three other young samaneras went with their same first teacher to live in the forest for the practice of meditation. They spent eight months there, and lived amongst wild creatures of many kinds including large snakes.

IIt was not long after that he entered the Masoyein Monastery College at Mandalay. There, after intensive studies under the tuition of his second teacher and hard task master, Sayadaw U Adiccavamsa, he was selected from among an entry of five thousand candidates as thePathamakyaw Scholar of all Burma in 1918. This success merely aroused in him the resolve to train and study for a further exceedingly strenuous long period in order to enter for the highest of all monastic examinations, thePanyattisasanahita (Mandalay). In 1923, of the one hundred and fifty entrants for that examination only four passed, of which he was one. Over the years since then the questions set for that examination have gradually been modified so that the possibility of attaining a pass is slightly greater than in those earlier days, and there are fewer and fewer now who know of the extremely high qualifications required in order to have been successful in those previous times. As a result of his studies for that achievement he could memorize stanzas by hearing them read once, and he had of necessity to memorize a total of fifteen volumes from theTipitaka to enable entry for the oral section alone. His success accorded him the right to appointment as the head of a monastery of three hundred bhikkhus, even at that relatively young age, as the result of which he became head of the education department and school at a monastery specially founded in Rangoon for his teacher, the Ven. Adiccavarnsa. and himself.

Some few years later, in 1933, he went to India where he spent a year at Santiniketan studying English and Sanskrit, following which period he journeyed to Ceylon with the aim of studying English. Unfortunately, however, due to ill health because of wrong feeding, coupled with the failure of his plans to come to fruit, he had to reconsider this original idea and in due course returned to India to stay at Adyar. It was at Adyar that he eventually had the opportunity to learn English from English people, and at the same time acquire a basic knowledge of some of the manners and customs with which he was not acquainted.

 During his time in India he was elected president of the South India Buddhist Associations, and he also undertook the management of the Buddhist Free Elementary School at Perambur. In an appreciation by members of the South India Buddhist Associations, dated 7th May 1938 at Madras, it records that since the founding of the Society in South India in 1903 many bhikkhus and missionaries had visited them, ' ...... but no one has evinced such selfless and untiring interest in the cause of the revival of Buddhism in South India as you have done in your short stay of four years.' The appreciation continues by saying that he was well known to Buddhists of Bangalore, Kolar, Wallajah, Wanniveda, Chakkra mallar, Konjeevaram, etc.

To further improve his knowledge of English, and in particular to study English educational methods and family upbringing and training of English children, he left Adyar for England in the summer of 1938. Having all his life lived under British colonial rule he was interested to learn at first-hand how the English lived and behaved in their own land, and to observe whether any of the educational methods and training of children might be of benefit to Burmese children at home. His knowledge of English by the time of his arrival was fairly good, if limited, but sufficient for him to accept an invitation by the then secretary of the Buddhist Society in London to give a general talk on the Dhamma. This very first talk in England was also the very first time he had ever addressed an English audience. His second talk, however, entitled 'World Fellowship Through Buddhism'. was given in France at the invitation of Sir Francis Younghusband, president and founder of the World Congress of Faiths, and took place at the Sorbonne University in Paris. Following those two talks he decided that before accepting any further invitation to speak in public he should improve his English, and so he took steps to attend a course at the London Polytechnic until March 1939.

 The conditions for any bhikkhu in the West in those days were exceptionally hard, bhikkhu-life being unheard of and unknown to the inhabitants of that part of the world. With the outbreak of war in that year, apart from two most generous friends with whom he first became acquainted in Adyar, Ven. U Thittila was left unsupported in any way and quite penniless; he was in almost unheard of circumstances for any member of the Sangha. Still undeterred, however, he did everything he possibly could for the individuals suffering under wartime conditions, eventually finding support for himself in various ways which included broadcasting on the Burma Service of the B.B.C. and joining the Burmese / English Dictionary committee of which Dr. Stewart was the founder. During those war years, when the giving of public talks was impossible and his quest for information regarding educational methods and family training of children was at a standstill, he was friend and helper to very many, but few indeed ever knew of the sometimes acute privations he had on occasions to endure.

As the war drew to a close he was gradually able to resume giving talks again under various different auspices, including two separate series of seventeen talks each to members of the Workers' Educational Association. He visited people in hospital, inmates in prison, and through some helpful contacts he was able to have at last the opportunity to visit certain schools, at some of which he was invited to give talks. His wish to observe how English children were brought up and trained by their parents was then also made possible by the readiness of a few different families, who upon introduction invited him to stay in their homes for that purpose. Of the children with whom he was associated he was able to study in depth their school life and home influence, and as he stayed with the families of differing religious backgrounds he was able to augment his knowledge of not only the Western way of life but the conditions to which many young people were subjected from a very early age.

So far as the Dhamma is concerned, perhaps the most outstanding feature was his introduction of the Abhidhamma Pitaka (the psycho-ethical analysis of things in their ultimate sense as against their conceptual form) to the West by way of commencing to teach the small manual, Abhidhammatthasangaha, to a class of students interested in the Buddhist Teaching and who had specifically requested him to deal with that section. For the very first time in the West the primer to the third Pitaka was systematically taught for a consecutive period of over four years, and this instruction became the bedrock and yardstick for those who sought to learn something of the fundamental teaching of the Buddha. His patience and skill, also his great care of his students in helping them to overcome their difficulties between the Western way of considering religious and philosophical matters in comparison with the Buddhist presentation of things, was evidence of the difference between a real teacher and an academic instructor. He helped them, too, in any facet of their lives, being frequently requested to give his advice which he never failed in offering.

In March 1949 the Sasana Kari Vihara in London was founded by a group of nine Burmese appiyas for the purpose of supporting the work of Ven. U Thittila in England; thus for the first time since his arrival in the West he experienced something nearer to the Eastern traditional support of the Sangha, and became no longer dependent merely upon his own efforts for survival. His personal achievement in teaching continued unabated, and in the two years from March 1949 to March 1951 records show that he carried out in excess of two hundred and fifty teaching engagements, quite apart from fulfilling all the other types of duties which normally fall to a bhikkhu in the ordinary course of events. Being then the only resident bhikkhu in England, those other duties absorbed a very considerable proportion of his time.

Unfortunately, because of the unavoidable floating nature of the Burmese community in England, constant support for the Sasana Kari Vihara was never certain, and in 1952 when Ven. U Thittila was invited to lecture on Abhidhamma at Rangoon University to M.A. and B.A. students he decided to accept at a time when funds for the vihara had become virtually insufficient to maintain even one bhikkhu. Thus his departure for Rangoon, after fourteen years in what must almost at times have seemed like wilderness conditions, left an irreplaceable gap in the lives of many of his English students. However, they continued his Abhidhamma classes, studying on a revisionary basis all that he had taught them since the commencement.

 Although originally he accepted the university appointment for one year only, his work there continued in the end for eight successive years. His very great learning and undoubted skills in teaching were acknowledged during this period when, in 1956, he received the highest government award in that field by the conferring upon him of the title Agga Maha Pandita. It was an honour which originally carried with it some small annual material benefits for the receiver.

In 1959 he accepted an invitation from the Association for Asian Studies at the University of Michigan, U.S.A., to lecture in America. Travelling all over the U.S.A., unattended by any dayaka or helper, encountering climates ranging from extreme cold with deep snow to blazing sun with extreme heat, he spent nearly six months delivering well over a total of one hundred and sixty lectures at various universities and arranged meetings. This was the planned programme, but as a result of his talks he found himself constantly the guest of many of the hospitable American people who heard him speak, and the additional inquiries and personal questions arising from this extra dimension greatly extended what was already a very demanding schedule. His itinerary included a flight from Los Angeles to Hawaii, where at Honolulu University he was requested particularly to give twelve talks, ten of them on Abhidhamma. And it was while still in the American continent that he visited Toronto in Canada.

Over the years he has accepted three invitations at different times to go to Australia, during which visits the practice of meditation and study of the text of Dhammapada ranked high in interest. He has journeyed to Japan where he had the opportunity to observe and discuss with Japanese Zen masters their methods and training of Zen meditation students, and has also visited both Singapore and Hongkong. On other occasions he has travelled for specific purposes to Indonesia, Cambodia, Nepal, and more than once to Thailand, quite apart from passing through that country many times in the course of other longer travels. In Europe, prior to 1960, he had also upon invitation given talks in Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Holland. Norway, Sweden and Denmark, and yet again in France many years after his original first pre-war talk in 1938. In 1964, at the instigation of two of his English Abhidhamma students, he accepted an invitation to visit England again to continue teaching Abhidhamma. The form of teaching on that occasion, however, took on a dual purpose, and in the two years that followed, as well as teaching the subject he translated into English from the Pali, for the very first time that it had ever been done, the second of the seven books of the Abhidhamma Pitaka, Vibhanga. It was published by the Pali Text Society in 1969 under the title of The Book of Analysis.

Upon his return to Burma in 1966 he did not again leave for abroad until his two recent visits to England, one in 1982 and again in 1983. At the very considerable age of eighty-seven years, he yet again upon invitation conducted a course of weekly classes during the summer months of 1983, dealing with the application of Abhidhamma knowledge to ordinary everyday life.

 During the years from 1966-1982 in Burma, due to his knowledge, evident practice, practical experience and inevitable seniority in age, he became invited and accepted the position of Ovadacariya (spiritual adviser or instructor) to the central council of the Sangha Mahanayaka of the whole country, Burma; to the trustees of the Shwedagon Pagoda, Sule Pagoda, Kaba Aye Pagoda and to most other well known pagodas in Rangoon. He is also examiner for the well known Abhidhamma Propagation Society in Rangoon.

 The sparse information given in this extremely brief sketch of some of the main events in the Sayadaw's life, confirms a remark made one day by an astrologer in Mandalay who once happened to see the Sayadaw there when he was a young samanera. The astrologer commented that only one tenth of anything that that particular young bhikkhu did would ever become known. The difficulty in collecting information is compounded by the fact that the Sayadaw very seldom speaks of himself, or mentions his endless achievements in the vast field of his experiences. Beneath his quiet and retiring bearing lies a profound depth of knowledge of the Buddhist Teaching, and to spread this knowledge has been his great endeavour throughout his life. He has striven, often in the face of surprising opposition, to carry out his aim. Even his original idea to learn English and go to the West, met with an opposition that made his initial departure a very difficult thing. Over the years since the war he has taught and helped countless Western-born people, although of his English pupils from the actual war years and just after, so many are now no more. However, by those who still remember him during his fourteen years presence in England, from 1938-1952, and who on subsequent visits have continued to receive teaching and guidance from him, he is deeply regarded and with much gratitude.

As a skilled teacher, in accordance with the order ofpariyatti, patipatti and pativedha (learning, practice and realization), he has always been at pains to deal with first things first. He has always realized that strangers, newcomers to the word Buddhism, having been brought up and educated from childhood in a totally different religious environment, would have absolutely no concept at all of the Buddhist Teaching. His method, therefore, has been first to explain very simply and gradually exactly what and who a Buddha is. Once such people have become acquainted with some knowledge and a correct idea of the nature of a Buddha, he later, still in very simple terms, gains the further interest of his listeners by the very reasonableness and logic of what he has to say in connection with right living in ordinary everyday life, and what in accordance with Buddhist teaching is required if one is to improve oneself morally, intellectually and spiritually. He always speaks to people at their level of appreciation and interest, feeding them slowly with information that will build their confidence. Like a wise farmer, he tills the soil before sowing the seed. He prepares the ground; then, selecting suitable seed for the varying soils he plants carefully at the proper season, realizing that to use the same seed in all the differing soils would be unsuitable and unproductive.

On recognizing some people's almost total ignorance of the Dhamma, the Sayadaw has never been dismayed; he has never ever considered abandoning any mission on encountering such utter lack of comprehension, but actually striven all the harder to offer to those individuals something which could act as a next step for them, something which could serve as an aid to movement in the right direction. Knowing that morality is the soil in which development and understanding grow, he has sought, always, to introduce, maintain and increase people's knowledge of, and tendency to practise, at least the basic five precepts in their ordinary life.

And so, dealing with first things first, he will speak to the uninformed of right thought, right speech and right action in their ordinary everyday life. As he says, 'How we think, speak, behave and react when we have come away from meditation centres and returned to everyday life, is the clue as to how far, if at all, we have actually improved or advanced morally and mentally. Is our annoyance at things, our anger, less; are we more kindly, better behaved, more considerate towards others? Is our greed for the things we like and try to get hold of in everyday existence, is that greed really less?'

Approaching his ninetieth year the Sayadaw is still active and teaching, at the same time making available to others his great knowledge and vast experience of practice under conditions which none but the most highly disciplined and principled could have ever emerged unscathed morally or mentally. The inflexibility of his determination as a very young person to learn every aspect of the Buddhist Teaching absolutely thoroughly, and his inflexibility to live always appealing to the highest within himself, has enabled the spreading of the true Dhamma to reach large numbers in the world who otherwise may never have heard of it, nor had the chance to meet one of its most genuinely humble, compassionate and dedicated exemplars, one of its most profoundly learned exponents.

Written by C. W. Iggleden
England 1985

P.S.: The Most Venerable Sayadaw passed away in Myanmar (Burma)

, on January the 3rd , 1997, at the age of 100."

[Quelle: http://web.ukonline.co.uk/buddhism/biogrphy.htm#uthittila . -- Zugriff am 2003-06-26]

1948

Es erscheint:

Blyth, Reginald Horace <1898 - 1964>: Zen in English literature and oriental classics.  -- Tokyo : Hokuseido Press, 1948. -- 446 S.  : Ill.  ; 19 cm.


Abb.: R. H. Blyth
[Bildquelle: http://www.gardendigest.com/zen/blyth.htm. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-16]

"Reginald Horace Blyth 1898 - 1964 / Prepared by Michael P. Garofalo

April 10, 2005

Biography / Chronology 

1898   Born on December 3, 1898,  in Essex, England.   He was the only child of Horace Blyth, a railway clerk, and Herrietta Williams Blyth, housewife.   His family was poor. 

1914   Greatly influenced by the writings of Matthew Arnold on self-development and excellence. 

1915   Graduated from County High School for Boys, Ilford, England.  Blyth was a strong, healthy and  energetic young man. 

1916   Imprisoned in Wormwood Scrubs because he was a conscientious objector to World War I and a pacifist.

1923  Graduated from London University, with honors, in English.  Blyth learned to play the organ and flute, began making musical instruments, and loved the music by J.S. Bach.  He was self-taught in numerous European languages.  He adopted a vegetarian lifestyle which he maintained throughout his life. 

1924  Graduated from London Day Training College with a teaching certificate.  Married Annie Bercovitch.  Taught for awhile in India. 

1925  Assistant Professor of English at Keijo University in Seoul, Korea.  Began learning Japanese and Chinese.

1926  Began his study of Zen under Kayama Taizi Roshi of Myoshinji Betsuin in Korea.

1927  Strongly influenced by the Zen works of Daisetz Suzuki.   Immersed himself in Japanese culture, art, films, and lifestyle. 

1933  Adopted a Korean boy.  This son later became a teacher, and was executed shortly after the Korean War. 

1935  Divorced from Annie Bercovitch. 

1937  Married Tomiko Blyth.  They had two daughters: Nana and Harumi. 

1939  Became a teacher of English at the Fourth High School in Kanazawa, Japan. 

1941-1945  Interned as an enemy alien in Kobe, Japan.  His influential friends included: D.T. Suzuki, Nosei Abe, Katsunoshin Yamanashi.  He wanted to take Japanese nationality but his request was denied.  His home and extensive library were destroyed in a bombing raid during the war. 

 1942 [!] Zen in English Literature and Oriental Classics published by The Hokuseido Press, Tokyo. 

1944  Introduced Robert Aitken to Zen Buddhism during their wartime internment at the Rinkangaku Reform School, in Futatabi Park above Kobe, Japan.  Also interned at Futatabi Park were Max Brodofsky and Roy Henning.  Despite the wartime rigours, the chief guard, Mr. Higasa, treated the internees with respect and kindness.  For more information about this period, discuss the matter with Mark S. Schwartz.  

1946  Blyth and Harold G. Henderson worked on numerous high level projects in the post-war transition to peace between the Americans and Japanese.  Blyth was a liaison with the Emperor's household, and Henderson was on the Occupation Forces Headquarters staff, under the direction of General MacArthur.   Blyth and Henderson worked together on Emperor Showa's "Human-Being Declaration" - a public proclamation that the Emperor of Japan was a human being and not a God.

1946  Blyth became a Professor of English at Gakushuin University (Peers' School).  Blyth was one of the English language tutors of the Crown Prince, Akihito, who later became the Emperor of Japan. 

1949-1952  Haiku (4 Volumes), and Senryu were published by Hoksueido Press and financed by the Prime Minister, Shigero Yoshida.    The book is dedicated to Sakuo Hashimoto and Naoto Ichimada.   

1956  Awarded a Doctorate in Literature from Tokyo University. 

1957  Awarded the Zuihosho (Order of Merit) Fourth Grade by the Japanese government. 

1959  Japanese Life and Character in Senryu, and Oriental Humor are published.

1960  Zen and Zen Classics volumes begin to be published.

1961  Edo Satirical Verse Anthology published.. 

1964  Died on October 28th of a brain tumor and complications from pneumonia.  He died in the Seiroka Hospital in Tokyo.  He was buried in the cemetery of the Shokozan Tokeiji Soji Zenji Temple in Kamakura, Japan.  His tombstone is next to that of D. T. Suzuki. "

[Quelle:   Michael P. Garofalo. -- http://www.gardendigest.com/zen/blyth.htm. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-16]

1956

Es erscheint:


Abb.: Einbandtitel

Lobsang Rampa, T. (Tuesday): The third eye; the autobiography of a Tibetan lama. Illustrated by Tessa Theobald.  -- London, Secker & Warburg, 1956. Description: 256 S. Ill. 23cm.

Das Buch erweist sich, wie die weiteren Bücher des Autors, als Schwindel. Trotzdem sind die Bücher bis heute beliebt und werden in viele Sprachen übersetzt.


Abb.: Cyril Hoskins alias T. Lobsang Rampa

"Rampa, Tuesday Lobsang (Cyril Henry Hoskin, 1911-1981, also Dr Carl Kuon Suo) A Surrey plumber's assistant, who in 1956 published a romantic tale, The Third Eye, dealing with a Tibetan youth from Lhasa who had a hole poked in his forehead - an operation to open the 'third eye' - and thereby became gifted with all manner of mystic powers, had encounters with the Abominable Snowman and performed levitation. Hoskin said that he was the chosen youth.

The book was a best-seller in twelve countries, and was followed by The Cave of the Ancients. When it developed that the author spoke not a word of Tibetan, had not even owned a passport, and certainly had not been a hero of the Chinese Air Force battling the Japanese as he'd claimed, the inventive Hoskin came out with two more books, Doctor from Lhasa and The Rampa Story, which explained all by saying that the real Rampa had occupied the body of the otherwise ordinary plumber's assistant. Believers gladly accepted this illumination of what had appeared to be a refutation of the Rampa history.

Hoskin produced several more books, including My Visit to Venus, in which he described a trip in a flying saucer in the company of two Venusians named Tall One and Broad One.

Having no adequate knowledge of science, Hoskin produced some classic blunders. In his 1955 book, Flying Saucer from Mars, he explained that UFOs do not land on Earth because they are made of anti-matter, which upon contact with regular, terrestrial matter, would produce a spectacular explosion

resulting in the mutual annihilation of both the substances involved. He failed to recognize that air itself would bring that about. Hoskin's books are still very popular and widely sold."

[Quelle: Randi, James <1928 - >: The supernatural a-z : the truth and th lies. -- London : Headline, ©1995. -- 363 S. : Ill. -- ISBN 0-7472-4643-2. -- S. 260f.]

"The Third Eye

The Third Eye, published in 1956 and authored by Tuesday Lobsang Rampa, purported to be Rampa's autobiographical tale of his study and mastery of Tibetan Buddhism.

Rampa claimed that he had been born into a wealthy Tibetan family and had studied in Lhasa to become a lama. He had then undergone an operation to open up the "third eye" in the middle of his forehead. This operation had bestowed upon him amazing psychic powers.

Naturally, this description of an ancient Tibetan operation that could provide psychic powers raised a few eyebrows, especially among serious scholars of Tibetan culture. Keen to debunk what they were sure was a fraud, a group of scholars living in Britain hired a detective, Clifford Burgess, to determine the validity of Rampa's tale.

What Burgess discovered was that Rampa had never been to Tibet, nor had he ever had any operation done to his forehead. Instead Rampa was actually Cyril Henry Hoskins, born in Devon, England, and son of a plumber named Joseph Henry Hopkins.

Cyril, it turned out, had always been interested in the study of the occult. He had studied it as much as he could in his spare time. But one day he had taken his interest a step further. He grew a beard, shaved his head, and began to refer to himself as "Dr. Kuan-suo."

Burgess confronted Cyril with what he had learned, but Cyril had a ready explanation at hand. He said that while he may have been born Cyril Henry Hoskins, he had become Tuesday Lobsang Rampa because his body had been taken over by Rampa's spirit. Therefore, according to him, all the information in his book was true.

Despite having been proven to be a phony—a plumber's son posing as a Tibetan monk— a market still existed for Rampa's brand of humbug. Evidently quite a few people were willing to believe his tale about having been possessed by the spirit of a Tibetan monk. So he continued on with his career as Tuesday Lobsang Rampa, writing twelve more books before his death in 1981. However, none of them sold as well as The Third Eye.


References:
  • Rampa, T. Lobsang. The Third Eye. Doubleday. 1956.
  • "The Tibetan Lama Hoax." Tomorrow 6, 1958: 9-13.

[Quelle: http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/thirdeye.html. -- Zugriff am 2005-05-09]

1956

Der Mönch Kapilavaddho (William Purfurst) (1906 - 1971) kehrt aus Thailand nach England zurück

"Purfurst was born in 1906 and brought up according to the "ethics and standards derived from the leftovers of a late Victorian Protestantism" (Life as a Siamese Monk, 1). He discovered Eastern philosophy in his late teens, and in particular the teachings of Theravada Buddhism. He joined the Buddhist Society and over the years gained some reputation as a lecturer at the society and at various universities. I have very little information about the next 20 years or so. In 1952, he was ordained as Samanera Dhammananda in London by the Burmese monk, U Thittila (Humphreys, Sixty Years of Buddhism, 55); but since he was later ordained as a samanera in Thailand, he must, I think, have ceased to be one in England—and he does seem to have had a tendency to return to lay life, as we shall see. Two years later, in 1954, he decided to take the plunge and go to the East to become a monk. (It was impossible to take bhikkhu ordination in Britain at that time because there were not enough monks to make up the quorum of ten that is required by the Vinaya). He says that he chose Thailand because it had not been influenced by colonialism (unlike Ceylon and Burma); but the fact that a Thai friend had managed to arrange that he enter the order in Thailand must have been significant too.

He arrived in February 1954, immediately felt at home, and spent the next seven months there, during which time he had a number of unusual experiences, detailed in his Life as a Siamese Monk. Most of these experiences occurred during periods of intense meditation, following a method given to him by the abbot of Wat Paknam, Chao Khun Mangala Raja Muni (usually referred to by the title, Lung Poh or Great Father). Wat Paknam, near Bangkok, was a large monastery and Purfurst (known as Tan William or Phra Farang/European Monk) was a star pupil. Lung Poh said that he had waited years for a Westerner; and because Purfurst had a thorough theoretical knowledge of Buddhism, he was immediately given instructions in meditation (having first taken the five lay precepts). This method involved repeating the words samma arahan (meaning 'perfect arahant'-—an arahant being one who has attained Nirvana/Nibbana) while concentrating on various parts of the body: the opening of the right nostril, the inside corner of the right eye, the centre of the skull, just above the uvula, the bottom of the throat, the navel, and finally a position two finger-breadths from the navel. "If you have some success," said Lung Poh, "you will be conscious of a pinpoint of light seen as if in the mind's eye" (Life as a Siamese Monk, 28).

Purfurst certainly did have some success—and quite quickly. Not only did he see light but also the form of Lung Poh: "he appeared to be smiling and pointing onward" (ibid., 49).

Again my mind turned to the pinpoint of light and from it bloomed forth like a flower a figure of the Buddha. It was nothing like the images which I had seen so many times. The figure was so utterly human, the face smiling and kindly. For a while it seemed to me that some interchange was going on between the figure and myself, not in words as such but in a sense of complete understanding. When the figure disappeared I knew not. (Life as a Siamese Monk, 49)

After his ordination as a monk, Kapilavaddho (as we should now call him) entered a period of 17 weeks of vipassana meditation, during which he confirmed the truth of the Buddha's teaching, particularly the doctrines' of imper-manence, no-self, and rebirth. He went back in memory to his very early childhood and beyond that to what must be an experience of being in the womb.

Violent and frightening flashes of shapeless colour gave way finally to utter darkness, a feeling of tearing constriction on my body and a ghastly sensation of drowning as I tried to breathe, each breath taking in liquid through my nostrils and filling my lungs, knowing that I must breathe but unable, until I felt I must die as all sensation left me.

And yet to say that all sensation left me is not strictly true. There was a knowledge of agonising expectancy, a searching, a violent striving for something I knew not what. Next I became aware of a gurgling sensation in my throat followed by pain in my heart. A feeling of age descended upon me, a sense of being spent and without strength, giving way rapidly to a certainty that 'I' was alive.

What a different alive and I it was. My whole body and mind felt different ... I opened my eyes and found myself looking out on to a small bamboo-built hut, a hut that reeked, I knew, of myself, reeked as only the lonely aged can reek. (Life as a Siamese Monk, 128)

He now experienced himself as an old woman . . . went back through her memories . . . and experienced her birth. He passed through several lives in this way—all of them in Asia except for one in medieval Germany. All of them were driven by desire.

Suddenly the thought sprang to mind: 'You silly little man, you never were born in the absolute sense. "You" is but a convenient term to describe a particular event in the relations between mental and physical concomitants, each of which is as transient as the event itself. You have no past, neither have you a future in the absolute sense ..." (Life as a Siamese Monk, 130)

This realization enabled Kapilavaddho to reconcile the teaching of kamma/karma (by which beings are continually reborn) with that of impermanence and no-self (there is nothing fixed and beings do not possess any unchanging essence); and to harmonize both of these ideas with the teaching on Nirvana/Nibbana—the freedom from suffering and unrest.

I knew . . . that this very Nibbana was not a state in relative opposition to that of the sensible world, but a state beyond all relationships. It was absolute, indefinable, nothing could enter or leave it. (Life as a Siamese Monk, 131)

So here we have an Englishman who has verified the essential teaching of the Buddha in something less than six months. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that, after emerging from his 17 weeks of meditation, he is told that he is no longer Phra Farang (European bhikkhu) but Phra Thai (Thai bhikkhu).

But Lung Poh had already decided that he should return to England and teach there. Kapilavaddho arrived back in November 1954, wearing his cotton robes despite it being winter time, and took up residence at the London Vihara—the only Theravadin monk in the entire country, as far as I know. His presence stimulated considerable interest among British Buddhists and three men (Robert Albison, an Englishman, Peter Morgan, a Welshman, and George Blake, a West Indian) asked if they could be ordained. Kapilavaddho was only allowed by the rules of the Vinaya to give them samanera ordination, and since there weren't enough monks in Britain to carry out full bhikkhu ordination, he returned to Thailand in December 1955 with the three new samaneras. Whilst there, he was made an Anusavanacarya—one who is well versed in both the Dhamma/teachmg and the Vinaya; this is the title of one of the functionaries in the ordination of monks, and Kapilavaddho carried out this duty during the ordination of Albison, Morgan, and Blake.

Kapilavaddho returned to England in March 1956 (leaving the three new monks behind) and helped found the English Sangha Trust, which was designed to create a sangha for Westerners in Britain. (Note that this was 54 years after Allan Bennett/Ananda Maitreya tried to do the same thing.) A house was purchased in London and Kapilavaddho, together with the three recently ordained monks who had returned from Thailand, set about establishing this sangha. But it did not last long. Kapilavaddho himself, his health failing, returned to lay life in May 1957, with Peter Morgan/Ven. Punnavaddho officiating at the ceremony. Albison and Blake (I don't know their bhikkhu names) simply returned to lay life and nothing was heard of them again. Morgan/Punnavaddho, on the other hand, went in the opposite direction: he went back to Thailand and has remained there as a monk ever since. All of this had happened by 1961.

Life as a Siamese Monk ends with Kapilavaddho's return to lay life in 1957. But we do know something of his subsequent career. He got married (for the second time) and disappeared for ten years. In 1967 he reappeared again but was now known as Richard Randall (nobody knows why he changed his name). He reordained as a monk (with his wife's permission) at a Thai temple, Wat Buddhapadipa, in London (founded in 1966 and then under the direction of Ven. Dhammasuddhi, now known as Dhiravamsa), and was given his old monastic name, Bhikkhu Kapilavaddho. He then went to the Hampstead Buddhist Vihara (which the English Sangha Trust had bought in 1963) and became its spiritual director; he renamed it Wat Dhammapadipa and resumed his life as a monk (with his wife in separate quarters next door).

However, he came to believe that Buddhism could be best conveyed to the West through lay organizations and so he disrobed for the second time in 1970. He also got married for the third time—to a woman 40 years his junior—but died a few months later in 1971, aged 65.

A number of issues are raised by Kapilavaddho's career. He spent just one year in Thailand, compared with six years as a monk in Britain (interspersed with a ten-year disappearance). He was very influential in the formation of the English Sangha Trust; yet though it was formed to establish a Western sangha, he ended up believing that lay life was more relevant to Western society. It is also significant that he claimed to have verified the truths of Buddhism for himself through his meditative experiences in Thailand. Yet the method that he used was very unusual; and despite the fact that he was taught it by a highly respected abbot, there is absolutely no reference to it in the Pali Canon (the Theravadin scriptures). Even so, he was widely regarded back in Britain as an adept at meditation and he appears to have taught this particular method to a fairly large number of Westerners over a number of years (including Alan and Jacqui James—see note below).

I think it is fair to say in conclusion that Kapilavaddho was something of a rogue Buddhist. (I am using the word rogue here only in the sense of one who lives apart and do not wish to imply its closely related meaning of unprincipled or untrustworthy.) Yet the Theravadin tradition is such that even this kind of mild roguishness is in a way misleading just because it is too individualistic. This is not to condemn Kapilavaddho in any moral sense; but it would be the traditional Theravadin view. And the view of the tradition needs to be heard."

[Quelle. Rawlinson, Andrew <1943 - >: The book of enlightened masters : western teachers in eastern traditions. -- Chicago : Open Court, ©1997.  -- xix, 650 S. : Ill. ; 25 cm..  -- ISBN: 0812693108. -- S. 350 - 353.]

1956

Gründung des English Sangha Trust "To promote and further the teaching of the Buddha by the provision, maintenance and support of residential centres for Bhikkhus and other such persons as may be designated by the Sangha who have undertaken the rules of training, and accommodate, maintain and support aged and necessitous followers of the Buddha Sasana."

Mitbegründer dieser Therava-Institution ist Maurice O'Connell Walshe (1911 - 1998)


Abb.: Maurice O'Connell Walshe
[Bildquelle: Tricycle : the Buddhist review. -- ISSN 1055-484X. -- Vol. VIII, No.1 (Fall 1998). -- S. 15.]

"Maurice O'Connell Walshe - A Tribute

Maurice O'Connell Walshe was born in London on the 22nd December, 1911 and died on the 18th April, 1998. He was a student at University College, London, and at the Universities of Berlin, Goettingen, Vienna and Freiburg-im-Breisgau. He taught mediaeval German language and literature at the University of Leeds, and as a Reader in German at Nottingham University and Bedford College, London. After retirement in 1979 he became deputy director of the Institute of Germanic Studies, University of London. His published works include a three volume set of essays of the 13th century mystic, Meister Eckhart and, in 1987, Thus Have I Heard - the most popular and contemporary version of The Long Discourses of the Buddha. A few months before he died he completed a Buddhist Pali dictionary which, hopefully, will be published in the near future.

Maurice's commitment to Buddhism began in 1951 and he implemented his interest with the scholastic training and personal vigour that had marked his German studies. So apart from learning the Pali language in which the scriptures of Theravada Buddhism are written and writing numerous articles and booklets on the theory and practice of Buddhism, he took up the practice of meditation, visited Buddhist monasteries in South East Asia and most importantly, was a leading figure in the development of Buddhism in Britain.

He was both a Vice President of the Buddhist Society and Chairman of the English Sangha Trust. This Trust was established in 1956 with the aim of supporting a Buddhist monastic foundation in Britain. He continued to serve this Trust as a Director into his seventies and helped with founding its two monasteries - Cittaviveka in West Sussex and Amaravati in Hertfordshire. After the death of his second wife, Florence, Maurice entered the monastic Order of Monks for several months at the age of 77. Having spent the three-month Rains Retreat as a monk according to the Thai custom, Maurice remained a regular and much-loved member of Amaravati's congregation whilst continuing to travel and write. He joked (or maybe it wasn't a joke) about becoming a monk again when he was 90 in order to finish his days close to the heart of the religion towards which he had given so much. He was always ready to help with linguistic and other problems and extremely generous and kind. He will be greatly missed by his university colleagues and Buddhist friends."

[Quelle: http://www.fsnewsletter.net/45/walshe.htm. -- Zugriff am 2005-06-07]


Zu 5.2.: Buddhismus in Großbritannien seit 1960