BEACHCOMBING, GOING NATIVE AND FREETHINKING: REWRITING THE HISTORY OF EARLY WESTERN BUDDHIST MONASTICS

Abstract

This article provides an introduction to the special issue of Contemporary Buddhism entitled ‘U Dhammaloka, “The Irish Buddhist”: Rewriting the History of Early Western Buddhist Monastics’. Traditional accounts of pioneer western Buddhist monastics begin with the 1899 ordination of H. Gordon Douglas (Asoka), and highlight gentleman scholars writing for a European audience. They consign to obscurity a pre-existing world of western Buddhist monastics of all social classes. To open a window onto this hidden history, this issue presents new material relating to the extraordinary career of U Dhammaloka (?1856–?1914), widely known as ‘The Irish Buddhist’. A working-class autodidact, freethinker and temperance campaigner from Dublin, Dhammaloka became renowned throughout colonial Asia as an implacable critic of Christian missionaries and tireless transnational organiser of Asian Buddhists from Burma to Japan. The research described in this issue is innovative not only in content but also in method and approach, having advanced through collaborative, international research employing web-based research tools and online resources. These offer new possibilities for other translocative and interdisciplinary research projects.

Acknowledgements

The authors plan to publish a more substantial volume on Dhammaloka in the near future and this will carry a very long list of acknowledgements. At the present stage of research, and for contributions directed particularly towards the IAHR panel and this publication, they wish to thank in particular Shelagh Bocking, John Breen, Chang Qing, Kate Crosby, Michelle Hubert, Andrew Skilton, Thomas Tweed and Shin'ichi Yoshinaga.

Notes

 1. Spelled variously as Metteya, Maitreya, Maitriya, etc.

 2. On Dhammaloka's pre-monastic identity, see below.

 3. Throughout this issue, in the interests of historical accuracy, we have used those terms and spellings prevailing in the period (such as Ceylon, Siam, Burma for Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, etc.). No political stance is implied by this usage.

 4. Although Askins does not name his ‘old pal’, Dhammaloka was reportedly in Nepal at the time of this conversation (March/April 1905).

 5. He may have been an invention of Karlis Tennisons (below). See Payer.

 6. Daily Advertiser (Singapore), 25 June 1892, 3. It is not uncommon that the last notice we have of an individual in the English-language colonial newspapers is one highlighting their intention to ordain. Unless this was followed, as with Ananda Metteyya or Dhammaloka, by public activity in English further public records are unlikely, which means the ordination may or may not have happened.

 7. The Straits Times, 6 July 1900, 2.

 8. Straits Times, 1 October 1904, 5; The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, 14 June 1904, 5.

 9. ‘Buddhism in Singapore: Interesting Ceremony at Havelock Road’, The Straits Times, 3 October 1904, 5.

10. ‘Buddhism in Singapore: Interesting Ceremony at Havelock Road’, The Straits Times, 3 October 1904, 5..

11. ‘European Buddhist Priest’, Eastern Daily Mail and Straits Morning Advertiser, 6 December 1905, 3; ‘Dutch Buddhist Priest: Learns the Error of his Ways’, Eastern Daily Mail and Straits Morning Advertiser, 11 April 1906, 1.

12. On Sister Sanghamitta, see Tweed (1992) and Bartholomeusz (1994).

13. Nor, it should be noted, do we discuss in any detail modernist Japanese engagements with other Asian forms of Buddhism, which in some respects prefigured western involvement. See Cox and Griffin (2011).

14. Sunday Independent (Dublin), 6 August 1911, 8.

15. A newspaper item in Rangoon in 1904 criticised the activities of local western converts to Buddhism under the heading ‘Loafers in Burma’ (Straits Times, 12 December, 1904, 8).

16. Conversely, we can note a beachcomber in a contemporary novel saying ‘I don't want your drink, Captain Cray. And please don't call me by that name again. I am no longer the Jack Hamerton that you knew at Oxford. My name is Corton—Charlie Corton, loafer, drunkard, beachcomber, abandoned good-for-nothing, and I don't want to be reminded that I was once something better!’ (Leighton and Ebbutt 1903, 11).

17. ‘An Extinct Legion’, United Service Magazine 2, July 1879, 309.

18. Franck calls him ‘U Damalaku’.

19. We met in person for the first time on 18 August 2010 in Toronto, having completed first drafts of the three papers in this special issue.

20. It should be noted that, as with many such initiatives, this process is currently privileging English-language material and that published in the West. We have done our best to correct this bias by seeking out Asian-language sources and collaborators with access to such material offline.

21. Except for the Catholic priesthood, these are not necessarily incompatible with Dhammaloka's own story of his career as a migrant worker, which remains the most plausible account.

22. The Principal Investigator for this 2008–2011 research project at University College Cork funded by the Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences and the office of An Taoiseach, is Dr Oliver Scharbrodt, working with Dr Vivian Ibrahim, Dr Adil Khan, and Dr Yafa Shanneik. Details available from http://www.ucc.ie/en/studyofreligions/islamproject/.