Anagārika Dharmapāla
1864 CE–1933 CE · Modern · Colombo
1864–1933 CE
Anagārika Dharmapāla (1864–1933 CE), born Don David Hewavitarne in Colombo, was a central figure of the modern Buddhist revival in colonial Ceylon and an early global Buddhist missionary. He founded the Maha Bodhi Society in 1891 to recover the Bodh Gaya site for Buddhists, presented Theravāda Buddhism at the 1893 World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago, and promoted a reformist, lay-oriented and nationalist Buddhism—taking the intermediate status of anagārika ('homeless one') between monk and layperson for most of his life, receiving full bhikkhu ordination only at Sārnāth shortly before his death. His legacy is significant and, in its Sinhala-nationalist dimension, also debated. He died at Sārnāth in 1933.
Did you know?
Two Buddhists at the 1893 Chicago Parliament
At the World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893, the Sri Lankan revivalist Anagārika Dharmapāla (1864–1933) addressed the delegates in person at age 29 — while the paper presented for the Japanese Zen master Soyen Shaku had been translated into English by his young student, the future writer D. T. Suzuki (1870–1966), then in his early twenties.
Meet D. T. Suzuki →How we know
World's Parliament of Religions, Chicago (Sept 11–27, 1893): Anagārika Dharmapāla (b. 17 Sept 1864, d. 1933) spoke in person; Soyen Shaku's paper "The Law of Cause and Effect as Taught by Buddha," translated by D. T. Suzuki (b. 18 Oct 1870, d. 1966; then 22), was read aloud by an organizer.
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Colombo
What they did here
DOCUMENTED: born Don David Hewavitarne in Colombo; a leading figure of the Sinhala Buddhist revival under colonial rule.
About Colombo
Colombo is the largest city and commercial capital of Sri Lanka, on the island's west coast. It was the birthplace of the Buddhist reformer Anagārika Dharmapāla (born David Hewavitarne in 1864), founder of the Maha Bodhi Society, and a centre of the modern Sri Lankan Buddhist revival; the activist A.T. Ariyaratne, founder of the Sarvodaya Shramadana movement, was also long active in the city.
In Colombo at the same time
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Anagārika Dharmapāla’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
Across the traditions
In the same tradition
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Anagārika Dharmapāla’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Buddhist world
- Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Tayé· 1813 CE–1899 CE
- Henry Steel Olcott· 1832 CE–1907 CE
- Edwin Arnold· 1832 CE–1904 CE
- Xuyun (Hsu Yun)· 1840 CE–1959 CE
- Ledi Sayadaw· 1846 CE–1923 CE
- Jamgön Mipham Gyatso· 1846 CE–1912 CE
- Paul Carus· 1852 CE–1919 CE
- The Twelfth Dalai Lama (Trinley Gyatso)· 1857 CE–1875 CE
- Dwight Goddard· 1861 CE–1939 CE
- Ajahn Sao Kantasīlo· 1861 CE–1942 CE
- Ajahn Mun Bhuridatta· 1870 CE–1949 CE
- D. T. Suzuki· 1870 CE–1966 CE
- The Thirteenth Dalai Lama (Thubten Gyatso)· 1876 CE–1933 CE
- Nyogen Senzaki· 1876 CE–1958 CE
- Nyanatiloka Mahāthera· 1878 CE–1957 CE
- Sokei-an (Shigetsu Sasaki)· 1882 CE–1945 CE
- Hakuun Yasutani· 1885 CE–1973 CE
- Taixu· 1890 CE–1947 CE
- B. R. Ambedkar· 1891 CE–1956 CE
- Webu Sayadaw· 1896 CE–1977 CE
- Thích Quảng Đức· 1897 CE–1963 CE
- Sayagyi U Ba Khin· 1899 CE–1971 CE
- Shunryū Suzuki· 1904 CE–1971 CE
- Ajahn Lee Dhammadharo· 1907 CE–1961 CE
Luminaries & Explorers world
Scientists
Jewish world
Islamic world
Hindu world
Rulers world
- Friedrich Ebert· 1871 CE–1925 CE
- Wilhelm II· 1859 CE–1941 CE
- Vladimir Lenin· 1870 CE–1924 CE
- George V· 1865 CE–1936 CE
- Sun Yat-sen· 1866 CE–1925 CE
- Calvin Coolidge· 1872 CE–1933 CE
- Emperor Taisho· 1879 CE–1926 CE
- Wovoka (Jack Wilson)· 1856 CE–1932 CE
- Warren G. Harding· 1865 CE–1923 CE
- Philippe Petain· 1856 CE–1951 CE
- William Howard Taft· 1857 CE–1930 CE
- Mehmed VI· 1861 CE–1926 CE
- Nicholas II· 1868 CE–1918 CE
- Woodrow Wilson· 1856 CE–1924 CE
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.