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Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhism in London: Religiosity and Communal Activities of a Diaspora Community

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Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhism in London: Religiosity and Communal Activities of a Diaspora Community SRI LANKAN THERAVADA BUDDHISM IN LONDON: RELIGIOSITY AND COMMUNAL ACTIVITIES OF A DIASPORA COMMUNITY MAHINDA DEEGALLE Abstract Focusing on Sri Saddhatissa International Buddhist Centre (SSIBC), London, this paper examines the religiosity and communal activities of a Sri Lankan diaspora community. It traces briefly the history of Sri Lankan Buddhist community in London and its expansion to the rest of UK. Locating the beginning of Sri Lankan Buddhist diaspora community in the first quarter of the 20th century, it examines the rit- ual calendar, communal, social, cultural and religious activities of SSIBC and World Buddhist Foundation. It also discusses its social welfare activities in Mudita Children’s Home in Sri Lanka and its unique contribution to British Buddhism by introducing deity wor- ship common in Sinhala Buddhist pantheon. History of Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhism in the United Kingdom Transplanting Sri Lankan form of Theravada Buddhism in London has been a gradual process. Like any other Buddhist group, diaspora Sri Lankan Buddhists also encountered ups and downs in their mis- sions of giving shape to Sri Lankan form of Theravada Buddhism in Great Britain.1 They faced problems in their innovations and expan- sions but were able to stand in the face of difficulties and divisions in their own communities in creating their own versions and representa- tions of flavour and diversity of Sri Lankan Buddhist traditions. As Philip C. Almond recounts in The British Discovery of Buddhism (1988:139), “At the beginning of the nineteenth century the Buddhist tradition did not exist as an object of discourse in the West. In the Western imagination, Buddhism” was “the most recent of the major 1 Great Britain began to control the entire island of Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) from 1815 and Sri Lanka became an independent nation on February 4, 1948. 53 world religions.” This situation, however, does not remain the same after two centuries of missionary and colonial encounters with Bud- dhist nations such as Sri Lanka and Burma. While Protestant mission- aries and colonial officers brought the knowledge of Buddhism to England, some exceptional individuals, such as the Protestant clergy men Daniel John Gogerly (1908), Reginald Stephen Copleston (1892) and Robert Spence Hardy (1841; 1850; 1853; 1866) wrote books in English explaining Buddhism to the West. The eminent civil servants, such as Hugh Nevill (1848-1897) who collected a massive collection of Sinhala palm-leaf manuscripts which are now preserved in The British Library (Somadasa 1987-1995) and Thomas William Rhys Davids (1843-1922),2 who served in Sri Lanka for eight years (1866- 74), expanded the understanding of Theravada Buddhism and the knowledge of Pali in Europe and America by founding The Pali Text Society3 in London in 1881. The founding of The Pali Text Society indirectly facilitated the establishment of Sri Lankan Theravada form of Buddhism in London in the twentieth century. These early encounters and developments made the British to have some knowl- edge of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and subsequently encouraging some Sri Lankan Buddhists to take initiative to expand knowledge of Bud- dhism in Great Britain and Europe. Opening a new chapter in the expansion of Theravada Buddhism beyond South and Southeast Asia, the Buddhist revivalist Anagarika Dharmapala (1965:662) expressed openly his missionary zeal: “I am resolved to give the remaining years of my life to enlighten the people of England by telling them of the sublime doctrine of the Tathagata.” On September 27, 1925, Anagarika Dharmapala (1864-1933), founder of Maha Bodhi Society, visited London in the hope of estab- lishing a Buddhist mission in London. On that occasion, he met Mr. Christmas Humphreys, the President of the Buddhist Lodge (now The Buddhist Society, f. 1924). Subsequently, with generous financial 2 Rhys Davids (1877; 1908). 3 Since its founding, The Pali Text Society (http://www.palitext.demon.co.uk) continues to be the single most important intellectual resource for Theravada Bud- dhism in the West as well as for Theravada Buddhist studies in South and Southeast Asia. Its influence on academic community is severe. Reflecting on the process of intellectual domination, Philip C. Almond (1988:13) wrote: “By the middle of the [19th] century, the Buddhism that existed ‘out there’ was beginning to be judged by a West that alone knew what Buddhism was, is, and ought to be. The essence of Bud- dhism came to be seen as expressed not ‘out there’ in the Orient, but in the West through the West’s control of Buddhism’s own textual past.”.
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