Nyanatiloka
Encyclopedia
Nyanatiloka Mahathera (19 February 1878, Wiesbaden
, Germany – 28 May 1957, Colombo
, Ceylon), born as Anton Gueth, was one of the earliest westerners in modern times to become a Bhikkhu, a fully ordained Buddhist monk
.
, Germany as Anton Walther Florus Gueth. His father was Anton Gueth, a professor and principal of the municipal Gymnasium of Wiesbaden, as well as a private councillor. His mother's name was Paula Auffahrt. She had studied piano and singing at the Royal Court Theatre in Kassel.
He studied at the Königliche Realgymnasium (Royal Gymnasium) in Wiesbaden
from 1888 to 1896. From 1896 to 1898 he received private tuition in music theory and composition, and in playing the violin, piano, viola and clarinet. From 1889 to 1900 he studied theory and composition of music as well as the playing of the violin and piano at Hoch’sches Conservatorium (Hoch Conservatory
) in Frankfurt
. From 1900 to 1902 he studied composition under Charles-Marie Widor
at the Music Academy of Paris (Paris Conservatoire).
His childhood was happy. As a child Nyanatiloka had a great love of nature, of solitude in the forest, and of religious philosophical thought. He was brought up as a Catholic and as a child and adolescent he was quite devout. He went to church every evening and absorbed himself in the book The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis. As a child he wanted to become a Christian missionary in Africa and as an adolescent he ran away from home to become a Benedictine monk at Maria-Laach monastery but soon returned. From then on his “belief in a personal God gradually transformed into a kind of pantheism” and was inspired by the prevailing atmosphere of weltschmerz
(world-weariness). From the age of seventeen he was a vegetarian and abstained from drinking and smoking.
Around the age of fifteen he began to have an “almost divine veneration for great musicians, particularly composers, regarding them as the manifestation of what is most exalted and sublime” and made friends with musical child prodigies. He composed orchestral pieces and in 1897 his first composition called “Legende” (“Legend”) was played by the Kurhaus Orchestra of Wiesbaden.
At about the same time he conceived a great love for philosophy. He studied Plato
's Phaedo
, Descartes, Kant
’s Critique of Pure Reason
, von Hartmann and especially Schopenhauer. He also had a great interest for languages, foreign countries and peoples.
From the age of seventeen he was a vegetarian and abstained from drinking and smoking. While visiting a vegetarian restaurant he heard Theosophical lecturer Edwin Böhme give a talk on Buddhism which made him immediately an enthusiastic Buddhist. The following day his violin teacher gave him Buddhist Catechism by Subhadra Bhikshu and another book on Buddhism that gave him the desire to become a Buddhist monk in Asia.
After studying composition with the well-known composer Charles-Marie Widor
in Paris, he played in various orchestras in France, Algeria, and Turkey. In 1902, intending to become a Buddhist monk in India, he travelled from Thessaloniki to Cairo by way of Palestine. After earning the necessary money by playing violin in Cairo, Port Said and Bombay, he travelled to Sri Lanka.
. In Burma where he was ordained as a Theravada
Buddhist novice (samanera
) at the Ngda Khi Pagoda under Venerable U Āsabha Thera in September 1903. As a novice he first stayed with Ananda Metteyya for a month in the same room.
In January or February 1904 he received full acceptance into the Sangha (upasampadā
) with U Kumāra Mahāthera as preceptor (upajjhāya
) and became a bhikkhu with the name of Ñāṇatiloka. Although his preceptor was a renowned Abhidhamma reciter, he learned Pali
and Abhidhamma mostly by himself. Later in 1904 he visited Singapore, perhaps with the intention to visit the Irish monk U Dhammaloka
. Having first stayed with U Dhammaloka, with whom he was not impressed, he then stayed for a fortnight with a friendly, but married, Japanese priest. While having to wait for his ship back back to Burma, he stayed for a month in an unoccupied Sinhalese temple in Kuala Lumpur. At the end of 1904 he left Rangoon to go to Upper Burma together with the Indian monk Kosambi Dhammānanda, the later Harvard scholar Dhammananda Kosambi. In a cave in the Sagaing Mountains they practised concentration and insight meditation under the instructions of a monk who was reputed to be an arahant.
Desiring to deepen his study of Pali and the Pali scriptures, he went to Sri Lanka in 1905. In 1905–06 Nyanatiloka stayed with the Siamese prince monk Jinavaravamsa, (layname Prince Prisdang Jumsai, who had earlier been the first Siamese Ambassador for Europe) in palm leaf huts on the small island of Galgodiyana near Mātara, which Jinavaravamsa called Culla-Laṅkā (“Small Lanka”). Pictures of Nyanatiloka and Jinavaravamsa taken at this monastery suggest that they were doing meditation of the nature of the body by way of observing skeletons or were doing contemplation of death.
At Culla-Laṅkā Nyanatiloka ordained two laymen as novices (samanera). The Dutchman Frans Bergendahl, the troubled son of a rich merchant, was given the name Suñño. The German Fritz Stange, training to be an Postal Department official, was given the name Sumano. In the summer of 1906 Nyanatiloka returned to Germany to visit his parents. Sumana, who was suffering from consumption and had to get treatment, also went with him. They returned to Sri Lanka in October.
At the end of 1906 Nyanatiloka returned to Burma alone, where he continued to work on translating the Aṅguttara Nikāya. He stayed at Kyundaw Kyaung, near Rangoon, in a residence built for Ananda Metteyya and him by the rich Burmese lady Mrs Hlā Oung. He also stayed in Maymo in the high country. At Kyundaw Kyaung he gave the novice acceptance to the Scotsman J.F. McKechnie, who got the Pali name Sāsanavaṃsa. This name was changed to Sīlācāra
at his higher ordination. He also gave the going forth (pabbajjā) to the German Walter Markgraf, under the name Dhammānusāri, who soon disrobed and returned to Germany. Markgraf became a Buddhist publisher and founded the German Pali Society (Deutsche Pāli Gesellschaft), of which Nyanatiloka became the Honorary President.
In 1906, Nyanatiloka published his first Buddhist work in German, Das Wort des Buddha (The Word of the Buddha, published in English in 1927) and had started on his translation of the Aṅguttara Nikāya
. Nyanatiloka gave his first talk, in Pali, in 1907. It was given on a platform in front of the Pagoda of Moulmein with a Burmese Pali expert as interpreter. It was on the Four Noble Truths
.
Mountain, near the village of Novaggio
overlooking Lake Maggiore, and Nyanatiloka left Burma for Novaggio at the of end 1909 or the beginning of 1910.
The architect Rutch from Breslau had already designed a monastery with huts for monks, and the plan was that Bhikkhu Sīlācāra and other disciples were to join Nyanatiloka there. Nyanatiloka's stay and plans drew a lot of attention from the press and several journalists visited him to write about the him and the planned monastery. However, Nyanatiloka suffered heavily from bronchitis due to the cold weather, and also from malnutrition, and after half a year left Novaggio with the German monk candidate Ludwig Stolz, who had joined him at Novaggio, to try to find a better place in Italy or North Africa.
In Novaggio worked on his Pāli-grammatik (Pāli Grammar) and his translation of the Abhidhamma text called Puggalapaññatti (Human Types).
and her husband for a week. Then they went on Gabès, where they were told to leave Tunisia by policemen. Nyanatiloka and his companion were reluctant to do so because they felt at ease with the Arabs, who according to Nyanatiloka, had a lot of trust in them. After visiting David-Néel again, they left for Lausanne, where they stayed with Monsieur R.A. Bergier in his Buddhist hermitage called “Caritas.” At Caritas, the glass painter Bartel Bauer was accepted by Nyanatiloka as a novice called Koṇḍañño. Soon after Koṇḍañño left to Sri Lanka for further training, the American-German Friedrich Beck and a young German called Spannring came to Caritas. After two more unsuccessful visits to Italy in search of a suitable place for a monastery, Nyanatiloka, Spannring, Stolz, Beck, and perhaps also Bergier, left to Sri Lanka from Genoa on 26 April 1911 to found a monastery there.
) of 1911 (which would have been started the day after the full moon of July), Nyanatiloka and his companions moved to the Island. The hermitage was namedIsland Hermitage
. The island was bought by Bergier in 1914 from its Burgher
owner and donated to Nyanatiloka. In September 1911 Alexandra David-Néel
came and studied Pali under Nyanatiloka at the Island Hermitage while staying with the monastery's chief supporter, Coroner Wijeyesekera. Visitors such as Anāgārika Dhammapāla
and the German ambassador visited the Island Hermitage during this period. Several Westerners—four Germans, an American-German, an American, and an Austrian—were ordained at the Island Hermitage between 1911 and 1914.
In 1913 Nyanatiloka started a mission for the Sri Lankan “outcastes”, rodiya
, beginning in the area of Kadugannava, about 20 kms west of Kandy. Some of the rodiyalived and studied on the Island Hermitage. The son of the Rodiya chieftain was
accepted by Nyanatiloka as a novice with the name Ñāṇāloka. After the death of Nyanatiloka he became the abbot of the Island Hermitage. Nyantiloka mentions that there were reproaches because of the caste egalitarianism at the Island Hermitage
he met the Sikkimese scholar translator Kazi Dawa Samdup and the Maharaja. He then travelled on to Tumlong monastery where Alexandra David-Néel and Sīlācāra were staying, and returned to Gangtong the next day. Because of running out of finances Nyanatiloka had to return to Ceylon, accompanied by two Tibetans, who became monks at the Island Hermitage, returned to Sri Lanka.
(Burma).
Autobiography and biography
Nyanatiloka also translated traditional Theravadin Pali texts into German including:
Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden is a city in southwest Germany and the capital of the federal state of Hesse. It has about 275,400 inhabitants, plus approximately 10,000 United States citizens...
, Germany – 28 May 1957, Colombo
Colombo
Colombo is the largest city of Sri Lanka. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte, the capital of Sri Lanka. Colombo is often referred to as the capital of the country, since Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte is a satellite city of Colombo...
, Ceylon), born as Anton Gueth, was one of the earliest westerners in modern times to become a Bhikkhu, a fully ordained Buddhist monk
Bhikkhu
A Bhikkhu or Bhikṣu is an ordained male Buddhist monastic. A female monastic is called a Bhikkhuni Nepali: ). The life of Bhikkhus and Bhikkhunis is governed by a set of rules called the patimokkha within the vinaya's framework of monastic discipline...
.
Early life and education
Nyanatiloka was born in on 19 February 1878 in WiesbadenWiesbaden
Wiesbaden is a city in southwest Germany and the capital of the federal state of Hesse. It has about 275,400 inhabitants, plus approximately 10,000 United States citizens...
, Germany as Anton Walther Florus Gueth. His father was Anton Gueth, a professor and principal of the municipal Gymnasium of Wiesbaden, as well as a private councillor. His mother's name was Paula Auffahrt. She had studied piano and singing at the Royal Court Theatre in Kassel.
He studied at the Königliche Realgymnasium (Royal Gymnasium) in Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden is a city in southwest Germany and the capital of the federal state of Hesse. It has about 275,400 inhabitants, plus approximately 10,000 United States citizens...
from 1888 to 1896. From 1896 to 1898 he received private tuition in music theory and composition, and in playing the violin, piano, viola and clarinet. From 1889 to 1900 he studied theory and composition of music as well as the playing of the violin and piano at Hoch’sches Conservatorium (Hoch Conservatory
Hoch Conservatory
Dr. Hoch’s Konservatorium - Musikakademie was founded in Frankfurt am Main on September 22, 1878. Through the generosity of Frankfurter Joseph Hoch, who bequeathed the Conservatory one million German gold marks in his testament, a school for music and the arts was established for all age groups. ...
) in Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
. From 1900 to 1902 he studied composition under Charles-Marie Widor
Charles-Marie Widor
Charles-Marie Jean Albert Widor was a French organist, composer and teacher.-Life:Widor was born in Lyon, to a family of organ builders, and initially studied music there with his father, François-Charles Widor, titular organist of Saint-François-de-Sales from 1838 to 1889...
at the Music Academy of Paris (Paris Conservatoire).
His childhood was happy. As a child Nyanatiloka had a great love of nature, of solitude in the forest, and of religious philosophical thought. He was brought up as a Catholic and as a child and adolescent he was quite devout. He went to church every evening and absorbed himself in the book The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis. As a child he wanted to become a Christian missionary in Africa and as an adolescent he ran away from home to become a Benedictine monk at Maria-Laach monastery but soon returned. From then on his “belief in a personal God gradually transformed into a kind of pantheism” and was inspired by the prevailing atmosphere of weltschmerz
Weltschmerz
Weltschmerz is a term coined by the German author Jean Paul and denotes the kind of feeling experienced by someone who understands that physical reality can never satisfy the demands of the mind...
(world-weariness). From the age of seventeen he was a vegetarian and abstained from drinking and smoking.
Around the age of fifteen he began to have an “almost divine veneration for great musicians, particularly composers, regarding them as the manifestation of what is most exalted and sublime” and made friends with musical child prodigies. He composed orchestral pieces and in 1897 his first composition called “Legende” (“Legend”) was played by the Kurhaus Orchestra of Wiesbaden.
At about the same time he conceived a great love for philosophy. He studied Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
's Phaedo
Phaedo
Plato's Phaedo is one of the great dialogues of his middle period, along with the Republic and the Symposium. The Phaedo, which depicts the death of Socrates, is also Plato's seventh and last dialogue to detail the philosopher's final days .In the dialogue, Socrates...
, Descartes, Kant
KANT
KANT is a computer algebra system for mathematicians interested in algebraic number theory, performing sophisticated computations in algebraic number fields, in global function fields, and in local fields. KASH is the associated command line interface...
’s Critique of Pure Reason
Critique of Pure Reason
The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant, first published in 1781, second edition 1787, is considered one of the most influential works in the history of philosophy. Also referred to as Kant's "first critique," it was followed by the Critique of Practical Reason and the Critique of Judgement...
, von Hartmann and especially Schopenhauer. He also had a great interest for languages, foreign countries and peoples.
From the age of seventeen he was a vegetarian and abstained from drinking and smoking. While visiting a vegetarian restaurant he heard Theosophical lecturer Edwin Böhme give a talk on Buddhism which made him immediately an enthusiastic Buddhist. The following day his violin teacher gave him Buddhist Catechism by Subhadra Bhikshu and another book on Buddhism that gave him the desire to become a Buddhist monk in Asia.
After studying composition with the well-known composer Charles-Marie Widor
Charles-Marie Widor
Charles-Marie Jean Albert Widor was a French organist, composer and teacher.-Life:Widor was born in Lyon, to a family of organ builders, and initially studied music there with his father, François-Charles Widor, titular organist of Saint-François-de-Sales from 1838 to 1889...
in Paris, he played in various orchestras in France, Algeria, and Turkey. In 1902, intending to become a Buddhist monk in India, he travelled from Thessaloniki to Cairo by way of Palestine. After earning the necessary money by playing violin in Cairo, Port Said and Bombay, he travelled to Sri Lanka.
Early years as a Buddhist monk
In 1903, at the age of 25, Nyanatiloka briefly visited Sri Lanka and then proceeded in order to Burma to meet the English Buddhist monk Bhikkhu Ananda MetteyyaCharles Henry Allan Bennett
Charles Henry Allan Bennett was a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. He was a friend, mentor and associate of author and occultist Aleister Crowley, though the association ended early on in their careers....
. In Burma where he was ordained as a Theravada
Theravada
Theravada ; literally, "the Teaching of the Elders" or "the Ancient Teaching", is the oldest surviving Buddhist school. It was founded in India...
Buddhist novice (samanera
Samanera
A samanera ) may be translated as novice monk in a Buddhist context. The literal meaning is 'small samana', that is, small renunciate where 'small' has the meaning of boy or girl. In the Vinaya monastic discipline, a man under the age of 20 cannot ordain as a bhikkhu, but can ordain as a samanera...
) at the Ngda Khi Pagoda under Venerable U Āsabha Thera in September 1903. As a novice he first stayed with Ananda Metteyya for a month in the same room.
In January or February 1904 he received full acceptance into the Sangha (upasampadā
Upasampada
Upasampadā literally means "approaching or nearing the ascetic tradition." In more common parlance it specifically refers to the rite of ordination by which one undertakes the Buddhist monastic life....
) with U Kumāra Mahāthera as preceptor (upajjhāya
Upajjhaya
An Upajjhāya is a teacher in the Indian religions of South Asia.An upajjhāya is specifically a professional teacher in the technical subjects of Vedanga, i.e. Sanskrit grammar and other basic skills required for the perusal of the Vedas...
) and became a bhikkhu with the name of Ñāṇatiloka. Although his preceptor was a renowned Abhidhamma reciter, he learned Pali
Páli
- External links :* *...
and Abhidhamma mostly by himself. Later in 1904 he visited Singapore, perhaps with the intention to visit the Irish monk U Dhammaloka
U Dhammaloka
U Dhammaloka was an Irish-born hobo turned Buddhist monk, atheist critic of Christian missionaries, and temperance campaigner who took an active role in the Asian Buddhist revival around the turn of the twentieth century....
. Having first stayed with U Dhammaloka, with whom he was not impressed, he then stayed for a fortnight with a friendly, but married, Japanese priest. While having to wait for his ship back back to Burma, he stayed for a month in an unoccupied Sinhalese temple in Kuala Lumpur. At the end of 1904 he left Rangoon to go to Upper Burma together with the Indian monk Kosambi Dhammānanda, the later Harvard scholar Dhammananda Kosambi. In a cave in the Sagaing Mountains they practised concentration and insight meditation under the instructions of a monk who was reputed to be an arahant.
Desiring to deepen his study of Pali and the Pali scriptures, he went to Sri Lanka in 1905. In 1905–06 Nyanatiloka stayed with the Siamese prince monk Jinavaravamsa, (layname Prince Prisdang Jumsai, who had earlier been the first Siamese Ambassador for Europe) in palm leaf huts on the small island of Galgodiyana near Mātara, which Jinavaravamsa called Culla-Laṅkā (“Small Lanka”). Pictures of Nyanatiloka and Jinavaravamsa taken at this monastery suggest that they were doing meditation of the nature of the body by way of observing skeletons or were doing contemplation of death.
At Culla-Laṅkā Nyanatiloka ordained two laymen as novices (samanera). The Dutchman Frans Bergendahl, the troubled son of a rich merchant, was given the name Suñño. The German Fritz Stange, training to be an Postal Department official, was given the name Sumano. In the summer of 1906 Nyanatiloka returned to Germany to visit his parents. Sumana, who was suffering from consumption and had to get treatment, also went with him. They returned to Sri Lanka in October.
At the end of 1906 Nyanatiloka returned to Burma alone, where he continued to work on translating the Aṅguttara Nikāya. He stayed at Kyundaw Kyaung, near Rangoon, in a residence built for Ananda Metteyya and him by the rich Burmese lady Mrs Hlā Oung. He also stayed in Maymo in the high country. At Kyundaw Kyaung he gave the novice acceptance to the Scotsman J.F. McKechnie, who got the Pali name Sāsanavaṃsa. This name was changed to Sīlācāra
Sīlācāra
Sīlācāra Bhikkhu, October 22, 1871, Hull, Yorkshire, UK — January 22, 1952, Bury, West-Sussex, UK), born and died as J.F. McKechnie. He became a Buddhist monk in 1906 and was one of the earliest westerners in modern times to do so.-Life:...
at his higher ordination. He also gave the going forth (pabbajjā) to the German Walter Markgraf, under the name Dhammānusāri, who soon disrobed and returned to Germany. Markgraf became a Buddhist publisher and founded the German Pali Society (Deutsche Pāli Gesellschaft), of which Nyanatiloka became the Honorary President.
In 1906, Nyanatiloka published his first Buddhist work in German, Das Wort des Buddha (The Word of the Buddha, published in English in 1927) and had started on his translation of the Aṅguttara Nikāya
Anguttara Nikaya
The Anguttara Nikaya is a Buddhist scripture, the fourth of the five nikayas, or collections, in the Sutta Pitaka, which is one of the "three baskets" that comprise the Pali Tipitaka of Theravada Buddhism...
. Nyanatiloka gave his first talk, in Pali, in 1907. It was given on a platform in front of the Pagoda of Moulmein with a Burmese Pali expert as interpreter. It was on the Four Noble Truths
Four Noble Truths
The Four Noble Truths are an important principle in Buddhism, classically taught by the Buddha in the Dharmacakra Pravartana Sūtra....
.
Plans for a Theravada Buddhist monastery in Europe
Upon returning to Germany, Markgraf planned to found a Buddhist Monastery in the southern part of Switzerland and formed a group to realise this aim. Enrico Bignani, the publisher of Coenobium: Rivista Internazionale di Liberi Studi from Lugano had found a solitary alpine hut at the foot of Monte LemaMonte Lema
Monte Lema is a mountain in the Lepontine Alps in Switzerland....
Mountain, near the village of Novaggio
Novaggio
Novaggio is a municipality in the district of Lugano, in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland.-History:Novaggio is first mentioned in 1244 as Novagio....
overlooking Lake Maggiore, and Nyanatiloka left Burma for Novaggio at the of end 1909 or the beginning of 1910.
The architect Rutch from Breslau had already designed a monastery with huts for monks, and the plan was that Bhikkhu Sīlācāra and other disciples were to join Nyanatiloka there. Nyanatiloka's stay and plans drew a lot of attention from the press and several journalists visited him to write about the him and the planned monastery. However, Nyanatiloka suffered heavily from bronchitis due to the cold weather, and also from malnutrition, and after half a year left Novaggio with the German monk candidate Ludwig Stolz, who had joined him at Novaggio, to try to find a better place in Italy or North Africa.
In Novaggio worked on his Pāli-grammatik (Pāli Grammar) and his translation of the Abhidhamma text called Puggalapaññatti (Human Types).
Italy, Tunisia, Lausanne
In Italy, Nyanatiloka first stayed with a lawyer in a town near Turin. After the lawyer tried to persuade Nyanatiloka and his Stolz to make harmoniums to make their living, they left to Rome, where they stayed with the music teacher Alessandro Costa. From Rome they went to Naples and took a ship to Tunis, where they stayed with Alexandra David-NéelAlexandra David-Néel
Alexandra David-Néel born Louise Eugénie Alexandrine Marie David was a Belgian-French explorer, spiritualist, Buddhist and writer, most known for her visit to Lhasa, Tibet, in 1924, when it was forbidden to foreigners...
and her husband for a week. Then they went on Gabès, where they were told to leave Tunisia by policemen. Nyanatiloka and his companion were reluctant to do so because they felt at ease with the Arabs, who according to Nyanatiloka, had a lot of trust in them. After visiting David-Néel again, they left for Lausanne, where they stayed with Monsieur R.A. Bergier in his Buddhist hermitage called “Caritas.” At Caritas, the glass painter Bartel Bauer was accepted by Nyanatiloka as a novice called Koṇḍañño. Soon after Koṇḍañño left to Sri Lanka for further training, the American-German Friedrich Beck and a young German called Spannring came to Caritas. After two more unsuccessful visits to Italy in search of a suitable place for a monastery, Nyanatiloka, Spannring, Stolz, Beck, and perhaps also Bergier, left to Sri Lanka from Genoa on 26 April 1911 to found a monastery there.
Founding of the Island Hermitage
After arriving in Sri Lanka, Nyanatiloka stayed in a hall built for Koṇḍañño in Galle. Ludwig Stolz was given novice ordination at a nearby monastery and given the name Vappo. From Koṇḍañño, Nyanatiloka heard about an abandoned jungle island in a lagoon at the nearby village of Dodanduva that would be a suitable place for a hermitage. After inspecting the snake-infested island and getting approval of the local population, five simple wooden huts were built. Just before the beginning of the annual monk’s rainy season retreat (vassaVassa
Vassa , also called Rains Retreat, or Buddhist Lent, is the three-month annual retreat observed by Theravada practitioners...
) of 1911 (which would have been started the day after the full moon of July), Nyanatiloka and his companions moved to the Island. The hermitage was namedIsland Hermitage
Island Hermitage
Island Hermitage on Dodanduwa Island, Galle District, Sri Lanka is a famous Buddhist forest monastery founded by Ven. Nyanatiloka Mahathera in 1911. It has an excellent English and German library...
. The island was bought by Bergier in 1914 from its Burgher
Burgher
Burgher may refer to:* A citizen of a borough or town, especially one belonging to middle class* A resident of a burgh* A formally defined class in medieval German cities, usually the only group from which city officials could be drawn...
owner and donated to Nyanatiloka. In September 1911 Alexandra David-Néel
Alexandra David-Néel
Alexandra David-Néel born Louise Eugénie Alexandrine Marie David was a Belgian-French explorer, spiritualist, Buddhist and writer, most known for her visit to Lhasa, Tibet, in 1924, when it was forbidden to foreigners...
came and studied Pali under Nyanatiloka at the Island Hermitage while staying with the monastery's chief supporter, Coroner Wijeyesekera. Visitors such as Anāgārika Dhammapāla
Anagarika Dharmapala
Anagarika Dharmapala was a leading figure of Buddhism in the twentieth century. He was one of the founding contributors of Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalism and Protestant Buddhism...
and the German ambassador visited the Island Hermitage during this period. Several Westerners—four Germans, an American-German, an American, and an Austrian—were ordained at the Island Hermitage between 1911 and 1914.
In 1913 Nyanatiloka started a mission for the Sri Lankan “outcastes”, rodiya
Rodiya
Rodi or Rodiya are one of the widely reported untouchable social group or caste amongst the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka. Their status was very similar to all the Untouchable castes of India with segregated communities, ritualized begging, eating off the refuse of upper castes and refusal for the...
, beginning in the area of Kadugannava, about 20 kms west of Kandy. Some of the rodiyalived and studied on the Island Hermitage. The son of the Rodiya chieftain was
accepted by Nyanatiloka as a novice with the name Ñāṇāloka. After the death of Nyanatiloka he became the abbot of the Island Hermitage. Nyantiloka mentions that there were reproaches because of the caste egalitarianism at the Island Hermitage
Sikkim
Nyanatiloka travelled to Sikkim in 1914 with the intention to travel on to Tibet. In GangtokGangtok
Gangtok is the capital and largest town of the Indian state of Sikkim. Gangtok is located in the Shivalik Hills of the eastern Himalayan range, at an altitude of . The town, with a population of thirty thousand belonging to different ethnicities such as Nepalis, Lepchas and Bhutia, is administered...
he met the Sikkimese scholar translator Kazi Dawa Samdup and the Maharaja. He then travelled on to Tumlong monastery where Alexandra David-Néel and Sīlācāra were staying, and returned to Gangtong the next day. Because of running out of finances Nyanatiloka had to return to Ceylon, accompanied by two Tibetans, who became monks at the Island Hermitage, returned to Sri Lanka.
World War I
In 1914, with the outbreak of World War I, Nyanatiloka was interned by the British in Sri Lanka, deported to Australia (1915), released, travelled to China, interned in China (once China joined the war against Germany), repatriated with Germany in 1919.Buddhist Annual of Ceylon (1929).Japan
In 1920, after being denied re-entry into Sri Lanka, Nyanatiloka taught at Japanese universities for five years.Return to Sri Lanka & Island Hermitage
In 1926, he was allowed to return to the Island Hermitage.World War II
In 1939, with the British declaration of war against Nazi Germany, Nyanatiloka and other German-born Sri Lankans were again interned, first in Sri Lanka and then in India (1941). In 1948, he was permitted to return to Sri Lanka.Sixth Council
In 1954, Ven. Nyanatiloka and Ven. Nyanaponika (one of Nyanatiloka's disciples) were the only two Western-born monks invited to participate in the Sixth Buddhist councilSixth Buddhist council
The Sixth Buddhist Council was a general council of Theravada Buddhism, held in a specially built cave and pagoda complex at Kaba Aye Pagoda in Yangon, Burma. The council was attended by 2,500 monastics from eight Theravada Buddhist countries...
(Burma).
Biography
The English translation of Nyanatiloka's German autobiography — covering his his life from his childhood Germany to his return to Ceylon in 1926 after banishment; finished by Nyanatiloka in 1948, but probably based on a draft written in 1926 - was published as part of The Life of Nyanatiloka: The Biography of a Western Buddhist Pioneer (written and compiled by Bhikkhu Nyanatusita and Hellmuth Hecker, BPS, Kandy, 2009http://www.bps.lk/expositionsandstudies.aspView online.) This comprehensive biography contains an introduction, large bibliography, list of disciples, biography of Nyanaponika, photographs, and detailed information on the early history of early German and Western Buddhism.Work
English titles by Nyanatiloka:- Word of the Buddha: an Outline of the Ethico-philosophical System of the Buddha in the Words of the Pali Canon (1906, 1927, 1967 (14th ed.), 1981, 2001)http://www.bps.lk/b_basicbooks.asp, also freely available online
- Guide through the Abhidhamma-Pitaka (1938, 1957, 1971, 1983, 2009)http://www.bps.lk/abhidhamma.asp
- Buddhist Dictionary : Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines (1952, 1956, 1972, 1980, 1988, 1997, 2004)http://www.bps.lk/reference.asp
- Buddha's Path to Deliverance : a Systematic Exposition in the Words of the Sutta Piṭaka (1952, 1959, 1969, 1982, 2000)http://www.bps.lk/b_basicbooks.asp
- Fundamentals of Buddhism: Four Lectures (1994)
Autobiography and biography
- The Life of Nyanatiloka: The Biography of a Western Buddhist Pioneer Bhikkhu Nyanatusita and Hellmuth Hecker (Kandy, 2009)http://www.bps.lk/expositionsandstudies.aspView online.
Nyanatiloka also translated traditional Theravadin Pali texts into German including:
- the canonicalPāli CanonThe Pāli Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language. It is the only completely surviving early Buddhist canon, and one of the first to be written down...
Anguttara NikayaAnguttara NikayaThe Anguttara Nikaya is a Buddhist scripture, the fourth of the five nikayas, or collections, in the Sutta Pitaka, which is one of the "three baskets" that comprise the Pali Tipitaka of Theravada Buddhism... - the paracanonicalParacanonical texts (Theravada Buddhism)The term "paracanonical texts" is used by Western scholars to refer to various texts on the fringes of the Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism , most often to refer to the following texts sometimes regarded as included in the Pali Canon's Khuddaka Nikaya:* Suttasamgaha * Nettipakarana The term...
Milindapañha - the post-canonicalAtthakathaAtthakatha refers to Pali-language Theravadin Buddhist commentaries to the canonical Theravadin Tipitaka. These commentaries give the traditional interpretations of the scriptures. The major commentaries were based on earlier ones, now lost, in Old Sinhalese, which were written down at the same...
VisuddhimaggaVisuddhimaggaThe Visuddhimagga , is the 'great treatise' on Theravada Buddhist doctrine written by Buddhaghosa approximately in 430 CE in Sri Lanka. A comprehensive manual condensing the theoretical and practical teaching of the Buddha, it is considered the most important Theravada text outside of the Tipitaka...
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Sources
- Bhikkhu Nyanatusita and Hellmuth Hecker, The Life of Nyanatiloka: The Biography of a Western Buddhist Pioneer Kandy, 2009.
- Buddhist Annual of Ceylon (1929). "The 'Island Hermitage' (Polgasduwa Tapas-arama)" in "The Buddhist Annual of Ceylon" (vol. 3, no. 3), p. 189. Retrieved 19 Dec 2008 from "MettaNet" at http://www.metta.lk/temples/ih/1929.htm.
- Bullitt, John T. (2008). "Nyanatiloka Mahathera" in Contributing Authors and Translators: Biographical Notes. Retrieved 19 Dec 2008 from "Access to Insight" at http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/index.html#nyanatiloka.
- Harris, Elizabeth J. Harris (1998/2007). Aananda Metteyya: The First British Emissary of Buddhism (Wheel Nos. 420/422). Kandy: Buddhist Publication SocietyBuddhist Publication SocietyThe Buddhist Publication Society is a charity whose goal is to explain and spread the doctrine of the Buddha. It was founded in Sri Lanka in 1958 by two Sri Lankan Buddhist laymen, A.S. Karunaratna and Richard Abeyasekera, and a European-born Buddhist monk, Nyanaponika Thera...
. Retrieved 20 Dec 2008 from "BPS" at http://www.bps.lk/wheels_library/wh_420_422.html. - Pariyatti (2008). The (1954–1956). Retrieved 19 Dec 2008 from "Pariyatti" at http://www.pariyatti.org/ResourcesProjects/Treasures/ChatthaSangayana/tabid/78/Default.aspx.
- Perera, Janaka (28 May 2007). "Pioneering Western Buddhist monks forgotten" at "The Buddhist Channel." Retrieved 19 Dec 2008 from "Buddhist Channel" at http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=43,4202,0,0,1,0.
- Turner, Alicia, Brian Bocking and Laurence Cox. "Beachcombing, going native and freethinking: rewriting the history of early western Buddhist monastics." Contemporary Buddhism 11/2 (November 2010), 1 – 49. Online at http://eprints.nuim.ie/2298/1/LC_beachcombing%2Cpdf.pdf
External links
- Nyanatiloka Mahathera (1st ed. 1952; 2nd rev. ed. 1956; 3rd rev. ed. 1972; 4th rev. ed. 1980; repr. 1988). Buddhist Dictionary: Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines. KandyKandyKandy is a city in the center of Sri Lanka. It was the last capital of the ancient kings' era of Sri Lanka. The city lies in the midst of hills in the Kandy plateau, which crosses an area of tropical plantations, mainly tea. Kandy is one of the most scenic cities in Sri Lanka; it is both an...
: Buddhist Publication SocietyBuddhist Publication SocietyThe Buddhist Publication Society is a charity whose goal is to explain and spread the doctrine of the Buddha. It was founded in Sri Lanka in 1958 by two Sri Lankan Buddhist laymen, A.S. Karunaratna and Richard Abeyasekera, and a European-born Buddhist monk, Nyanaponika Thera...
. Retrieved 19 Dec 2008 from "BuddhaNet" at http://www.buddhanet.net/budsas/ebud/bud-dict/dic_idx.htm. - Nyanatiloka Mahathera (1994). Fundamentals of Buddhism: Four Lectures (Wheel Nos. 394/396). KandyKandyKandy is a city in the center of Sri Lanka. It was the last capital of the ancient kings' era of Sri Lanka. The city lies in the midst of hills in the Kandy plateau, which crosses an area of tropical plantations, mainly tea. Kandy is one of the most scenic cities in Sri Lanka; it is both an...
: Buddhist Publication SocietyBuddhist Publication SocietyThe Buddhist Publication Society is a charity whose goal is to explain and spread the doctrine of the Buddha. It was founded in Sri Lanka in 1958 by two Sri Lankan Buddhist laymen, A.S. Karunaratna and Richard Abeyasekera, and a European-born Buddhist monk, Nyanaponika Thera...
. Retrieved 19 Dec 2008 from "Access to Insight" at http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/nyanatiloka/wheel394.html. - Nyanatiloka Mahathera (14th ed., 1967). The Word of the Buddha. Kandy: Buddhist Publication SocietyBuddhist Publication SocietyThe Buddhist Publication Society is a charity whose goal is to explain and spread the doctrine of the Buddha. It was founded in Sri Lanka in 1958 by two Sri Lankan Buddhist laymen, A.S. Karunaratna and Richard Abeyasekera, and a European-born Buddhist monk, Nyanaponika Thera...
. Retrieved 20 Dec 2008 from "BuddhaNet" at http://buddhanet.net/budsas/ebud/word-of-buddha/wobtoc.htm or http://www.urbandharma.org/pdf/wordofbuddha.pdf