By Ven. Dr. Handupelpola Mahinda Nayaka Thera
Ven Metteyya Thera remained in London, for six months, at 101, Elm Grove road, Barnes, which was his temple, teaching and introducing people to Buddhist ideas. This house yet exists though it now belongs to a family. According to the Daily mail reporter it was a Temple. Religious programmes were activated whole-day long. In his tight timetable he had to go for lectures and sermons outside his temple. It is said that a taxi was used for such occasions. After six months he returned to Rangoon (in Myanmar) on the 2 of October, 1908.
Continued from Part 01
In December, 1901 Allan Bennett sailed to Akyab (present sittwe) in Burma (Myanmar) and received the novice or samanera ordination on his birth day, 08 December 1901, with the name of Ananda Maitriya. His close friend Aleister Crowley in his autobiography has given two reasons why allan Bennett proceeded to Burma. (i) “Bennett saw Burma as a place where the Sangha were purer than in Sri Lanka, (ii) Devil Dances and the Kandy Perehera had disillusioned him but Christmas Humphreys has written, “He...... decided to enter the Order, and in view of the limitations imposed on the Sangha in Ceylon, where ordination into one of the principal sects would automatically exclude him from free intercourse with those of other sects, he decided to enter the Burmese Order where such restrictions did not prevail.
He therefore sailed to Burma, first to Akyab in Arakan, to be ordained, and later to Rangoon, which he found a more favourable centre, for carrying out his plans.”
Buddhist Society
Whatever the reason, he went to Rangoon, in February, 1902. On 21 of May, 1902 (Vesak day) he received the Higher Ordination under Shwe Bya Sayadaw and was given the name Ananda Metteyya. He established the Buddha Sasana Samagama or International Buddhist Society in Rangoon on 19 July, 1902. The first issue of the journal ‘Buddhism: An Illustrated Quarterly Review’ was issued in July, 1903. He simultaneously published his lectures in pamphlet form. Later various articles and Books were published by him. Several times he went to Colombo and delivered sermons there too.
J. F. McKechnie, who was inspired by an article written by Ven. Ananda Metteyya Thera, approached him in Myanmar and received ordination by the name of Ven. Silacara Thera. He helped Ven. Ananda Metteyya Thera as sub-editor of the said journal. (as a novice pupil of Ven. Nyanatiloka Thera, he was given the name Sasanawamsa, but at his higher ordination, changed the name to Silacara.) Herr Anthon Florus Queth, in 1903 went to Sri Lanka, and studied the Pali Language and Buddhism under Ven. Seelananda Maha Thera of the Malwatta Temple at Kandy. In 1904, following the example of Allan Bennett he proceed to Burma, with the help of Ananda Metteyya, stayed in Rangoon and entered the Order as Ven. Nyanatiloka Thera. J. F. McKechnie (later Bikkhu Silacara) became the first pupil to Ven. Nyanatiloka Thera. Later he made his adobe in Sri Lanka and did a tremendous service to Buddhism, so that, after his demise, at the age of 79, state honours were given, in Sri lanka. The Kandy Buddhist Publication Society was established by him. The island Hermitage in Dodanduwa and the Forest Hermitage in Kandy, Udawatta Kele are the centres of German Monks, we can attributed to the ‘Ananda Metteyya’s Paramparawa’ or linage of clergy pupils. Ven. Nyanaponikasa Thera, the pupil of Ven. Nyanatiloka, was also a scholarly monk who served the Buddhasasana. A Lay pupil Dr. K. Seidenstuecker in 1903 founded a Buddhist Society at Leipzig, in Germany. Ven. Nyanathiloka Thera has contributed regularly to the journals published by Dr. K. Seidenstuecker. Dr. Paul Dahlke, the German physician, was also a foreign scholar who visited Sri Lanka and studied Pali as well as Buddhism. The ‘German Dhammaduta Society in Colombo, as well as the Buddhist House (Buddhistisches Haus) in Berlin, (1924) were started by Dahlke. And, the book entitled ‘The world of the Buddha’ written by Ven. Nyanathiloka Thera has gained vast popularity and has been translated into various languages Ven. Nyanamoli Thera, Ven. Nyanaponika Thera, Ven Nyanasatta Thera and Ven Nyanatusita Thera became reputed pupil monks of his lineage.
The first Buddhist mission to England, led by Ven. Ananda Metteyya Thera arrived on Wednesday, April 23, 1908. The time was mature enough to plant the seeds of the new religion. A branch of the Buddhasasana Samagama or the International Buddhist Society was established in England, making 14, Bury Street, near the British Museum its ‘Head Quarters’. The founding meeting was held there. According to the invitation letter, dated November 20, 1907, “The meeting of Buddhists and those interested in the study of Buddhism, Pali and Sanskrit Literature, was to be held at the Cavendish Rooms in Mortimer Street, near the Middlesex Hospital on Tuesday the 26th November, Professor T. W. Rhys Davids, was to preside.”
Quite a large number of educated and distinguished Englishmen maintained contact with Sri Lanka even after they returned to England, after the expiry of their tour of duty. Prominent along them were Lord Robert Chalmers, F. L. Woodward, George Turner, W. F. Stede, Prof Rhys Davids who studied Pali and Buddhism under Ven Hikkaduwe Sumangala Thera, the renowned prelate of the day.
Valuable inheritance
When he arrived in the UK, Englishmen praised Ven Ananda Metteyya Thera for giving them Buddha’s Teaching as a valuable inheritance. A representative from the Daily Mail has reported the event of the first Buddhist emissary’s visit to England. “Bhikku Ananda Metteyya Thera, the first Buddhist monk who has visited this country, landed at the Royal Albert Docks on Wednesday...” He was accompanying twenty-three disciplines and Buddhists. Three of them were women”. They were Mrs. Hla Oung, who paid all expenses of the visit, Mrs. Bah Oung and Mrs. Hpa, the wife of a Burmese judge” “A representative of the Overseas Daily Mail went abroad and was introduced to the interesting visitor by Major Rost, Hon Treasurer of the Buddhist Society in this country. He sat in one corner, clad in the yellow robe of his order, which is in three pieces, the whole being fastened by a yellow cord about his waist. With his head clean-shaven and his feet bare, he looked deathly pale, as he nervously fitted a cigarette into amber, dropped it; took up his beads and again nervously fingered them”.
Ven Metteyya Thera remained in London, for six months, at 101, Elm Grove road, Barnes, which was his temple, teaching and introducing people to Buddhist ideas. This house yet exists though it now belongs to a family. According to the Daily mail reporter it was a Temple. Religious programmes were activated whole-day long.
In his tight timetable he had to go for lectures and sermons outside his temple. It is said that a taxi was used for such occasions. After six months he returned to Rangoon (in Myanmar) on the 2 of October, 1908. A representative of the Daily Telegraph called on him on the September 28 of 1908, at the temple. This account of the reporter appeared on the 29 September 1908 in the Daily Telegraph Newspaper. “The priest, robed in orange colour and smoking a cigarette, was very lean, very tall, and very handsome, his head was shaven, and his eyes large, dark and downcast... The man who seemed to wear his unbecoming garment uneasily.”
To be continued to Part 03
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