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.
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.”
අව
අටවක
අමාවක
පුර අටවක
පසෙලාස්වක