Angarika H. Dharmapala as the editor of the Maha Bodhi journal recording the death of Colonel Henry Steel Olcott in its 1907 February issue wrote:”…We have to record with sorrow the death of Colonel Olcott which took place at Adyar on the 17th of February. Death has taken away from our midst a great personality, who has left his mark on the progress of thought and on the spread of Eastern religion. Posterity will form a better estimate than we knew his personally and knew his strength as well as his weakness…”
“…We judge only his views; not himself personally. Of him we have nothing but the kindest love; of the dead nothing but the good…”
Colonel Olcott was the great man who pioneered Anagarika Dharmapala to come to the forefront of the Buddhist revival movement in the world specially in Asia and India.
Being an inspiring servant of mankind, he dedicated his life to Buddhism and the people of Asia particularly India and Ceylon (Sri Lanka).
Colonel Olcott arrived in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) at a time that the top hat and the tail coat were statues symbols and he was able to see the evil effects of fifty years of colonial type missionary education.
*…New and great responsibilities are to be faced; momentous issues hang on the result of this visit…” wrote Olcott in his diary on May 15th, 1880 on the evening before he landed for the first time in the Island.
No words could have been more prophetic, for Olcott was captivated by the spirit of the Buddhist revival which he found in Ceylon and he soon placed himself at its head.
Theosophical Society: To meet the first deficiency Olcott started the Buddhist Theosophical Society in Colombo. It should really have been called the Buddhist Educational Society but the word. ‘Theosophical’ was used because the Society was affiliated to the Theosophical Society in India in order to obtain financial assistance.
Theosophical Society:
To meet the first deficiency Olcott started the Buddhist Theosophical Society in Colombo. It should really have been called the Buddhist Educational Society but the word. ‘Theosophical’ was used because the Society was affiliated to the Theosophical Society in India in order to obtain financial assistance.
To meet the second need Olcott started the National Educational Fund to establish schools which were not only Buddhist but also having strong national outlook. To take charge of these schools Olcott called to his aid several friends who had already joined him in his Theosophical movement. Leadbeater became the first headmaster of Ananda College. Woodward took charge of Mahinda College, Galle and they were followed by people like Bowles Dally, Fritz Kunsz, M.N. Moor, Mrs. Marie M. Higgins and Ceylonese like Buultjens, Colonel Her, Steel Olcott… He dedicated his life to Jayatilaka and Faber. From one school in 1888 earning grant of Rs. 84 for the year the number of schools run by the Buddhists had risen in 1898 to ninety-nine earning a grant of Rs. 27,430.68. So effective was Olcott’s educational work that in 1902 Rev. G.B. Ekanayake writing in “East and West” acknowledged that the current of Christian conversion had been effectually stemmed by the Buddhist educational movement.
Colonel Henry Steel Olcott was born on 2nd August, 1832, in Orange, New Jersey. U.S.A After a brilliant school career at the City College of New York, and Columbia University. he became interested in scientific agriculture. He edited a farmers’ periodical, and in 1858 he became associated with the New York Tribune as the agriculture editor. When the American civil war broke out in 1861, he gave up his newspaper work and went to the front, where the eventually attained the rank of colonel.
He set out with Madame Blavatsky for India in 1878 to study various religious there, and they arrived in Ceylon on 17th May 1880.
Colonel Olcott had a deep sympathy for all Asian religions Hinduism, Islam etc. When he came in contact with Asians, they became his blood brothers. He lectured on Hinduism, Society. and Zoroastrianism, and he wanted to equip archaeological expeditions with the aid of the Parsis of Bombay, to go to Persia (Iran) in search of Zoroastrian remains, and particularly to search for their lost scriptures.
When he came to India, the magnificent civilization of India was in a state of decay. He was the first in India to organise in Bombay, in 1879, a Swadeshi Exhibition of Indian manufactures to show the public of India what beautiful objects were being produced by Indian craftsmen.
This was long before Mahatma Gandhi, who led the Indian masses to freedom. The work of Colonel Olcott later stimulated the formation of the Indian National Congress, which inspired India to produce great leaders, and attain her freedom peacefully and with the retention of the friendship of the British people. As a matter of fact, Colonel Olcott’s influence was so great on both the elite and the masses of India, that his successor to the of the Theosophical Society. Dr. Annie Besant, an English Lady, became the first president of the Indian National Congress at its very inception.
Colonel Olcott, together with Angarika Dharmapala of Ceylon, were pioneers in the Buddhist revival movement in India and Ceylon. They worked together in the development of Ceylon’s educational movement.
At this point Colonel Olcott felt the need for a symbol to rally the local Buddhists. To meet this need, he designed a flag for the Buddhists from the aura that shone around the head of the Buddha. Colonel Olcott was closely associated with Anagarika Dharmapala in establishing Maha Bodhi Society. He was the first Honorary Director General of the Maha Bodhi Society.
It was Colonel Olcott that guided and assisted Anagarika Dharmapala to save Buddha Gaya from non-Buddhists and he rendered a great service in the legal battle on Buddha Gaya which Anagarika Dharmapala fought for ten years.
At the psychological moment Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott arrived in Ceylon and gave an impulse to the English speaking Sinhalese Buddhists who had become indifferent to their own religion, the good that these two persons accomplished within a short period is due more to the inherent vitality of the Sinhalese people then to any other agency. Col. Olcott once having visited a grant-in-aid Buddhist School found to his astonishment that the Buddhist boys were reading Christian publications complied by a Christian Publication Society especially intended for the conversion of Buddhist boys. He drew the attention of Buddhist parents to the anomalous state of affairs impressed on the minds of the Buddhist Bhikkus the necessity of starting a Buddhist educational propaganda. Colonel Olcott was called upon to initiate the movement and the lending Bhikkhus heartily supported the scheme. With the co-operation of the eminent Bhikkhus, Colonel Olcott opened the campaign in South Ceylon. then the Theosophical Society had no especial Hindu propaganda; its leaders were all acknowledged Buddhists; and the “Mahatmas”, who were supposed to be behind the movement declared themselves “devoted followers of Gautama Buddha…”
Sources: Maha Bodhi Journal, Feb. and March-1907 Times of Ceylon: (C.D.S. Sirwardena). The Wheel Publications No. 281 (B.P. Kithisinghe M.P. Amarasuriya).
