Sunday Times 2
LBV marks 150th birth anniversary of Anagarika Dharmapala
View(s):The London Buddhist Vihara (LBV) at Chiswick, the oldest Buddhist temple in Europe commenced a week-long celebration starting yesterday (Saturday, September 13) to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Anagarika Dharmapala, the founder of the Vihara and the Maha Bodhi movement.
The celebrations in Britain form part of global events to commemorate the life and service of the Anagarika Dharmapala.
The week-long programme will be launched at the Vihara with night-long chanting by the Sri Lankan Maha Sangha, representing all UK temples. This will be followed by an offering of Dana to the Maha Sangha today, Sunday, September 14 and on the same evening, the opening of a seven-day exhibition to honour and share with the general public Anagarika Dharmapala’s life and work.
The London Buddhist Vihara
The exhibitionis sponsored and supported by the UK Past Pupils Associations of several Sri Lankan Buddhist schools, viz.,Ananda, Visakha, Devi Balika, Dharmaraja, Mahinda, Nalanda and Musaeus will also be joined by the Association of Sri Lanka Lawyers in UK as well as the teachers and parents of the LBV’s Sunday Dhamma School.
The exhibition titled ‘Flowering of Buddhism’tells the story of one of the great sons of Sri Lanka, who was born in the 19th Century in British Ceylon as David Hewavitarne, at a time when colonial values were profoundly altering the island’s people. Steeped in Buddhist values, he takes up the name of Anagarika Dharmapala and helps to galvanise his countrymen into believing they can reclaim their cultural and religious heritage. His endeavours as a social reformer are also remembered for planting the seeds of the Ceylonese people’s struggle for independence.
However, he will be most remembered for his work in reviving Buddhism.Anagarika Dharmapala was able to restore the rights of Buddhists to manage and worship at all the most significant holiest shrines of their own faith. Since his work, the sites such as where the Buddha most gained Enlightenment, at Buddha Gaya, where he preached his first sermon (dhammacakkasutta) at Sarnath and where he passed away(paranibbana) at Kusinara are now visited each year by millions of pilgrims from all over the world.
The Anagarika was a tireless traveller who spoke passionately to audiences globally about Buddhism being a world religion, and this eventually led to the London Buddhist Vihara, the first Buddhist Temple outside Asia, being founded in UK in 1926.
The ‘Flowering of Buddhism’ Exhibition provides visitors the opportunity of understanding a unique individual, his dedicated contribution to Buddhism and the other renowned figures in the Buddhist Revivalist movement in the 19th and early 20th Centuries, .i.e. Ven. Migettuwatte Sri Gunananda Thera, Sir Edwin Arnold, Col HenrySteele Olcott, Madame Helena Blavatsky, Mrs. Mary Foster Robinson, Ven. Hikkaduwe Sri SumangalaThera and Christmas Humphreys.
On September 21, a commemoration meeting will be held at the Hammersmith Town Hall with Prof. Asanga Tillekeratne, professor of Buddhist and Pali Studies at the Colombo University and formerly Head of the Department of Buddhist Philosophy in the Post Graduate Institute of Pali and Buddhist Studies at the University of Kelaniya as the keynote speaker. The speakers will be welcomed by Ven. Bogoda Seelawimala Thera, Chief Monk of the LBV and will include Ajahn Amaro, Abbot of the Amaravati Monastery; Prof .Bellanwila Wimalaratne, Chancellor of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura and Dr. Desmond Biddulph, President of The Buddhist Society.
Other events that the London Buddhist Vihara have produced to remember their founder has included the Children of the Sunday Dhamma School presenting a unique drama depicting the historical life of the Anagarika, entitled ‘The Shining Light in The Age of Darkness’. The LBV has commissioned a short documentary on the history of the London Buddhist Vihara, as a 150th tribute to its founder.