This great Hawaiian lady form the U.S.A. was the ‘Foster parent’ of Anagarika Dharmapala. Whenever Angarika Dharmapala was in need of financial assistance for his Buddhist revival work it is his ‘Foster mother’ that helped him with absolute confidence.
In 1932 Anagarika Dharmapala, wrote the following article to mark the second anniversary of her death and published it as a booklet. (Maha Bodhi Pamphlet Series, No.16)
The ‘Foster Parent’ of the Anagarika Dharmapala is no more. Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Foster passed away on the 19th of December, Friday, at 2 p.m. 1930 at Honolulu, and I met her, or rather she met me on October 18th 1893 on board the S.S. “Oceanic” in the harbour of Honolulu. I came to the United States to attend the Parliament of Religions which was held at Chicago in September 1893, as the representative of the Buddhists of Ceylon. After the close of the sessions the Chairman of the Advisory Board, Revd. Dr. John Henry Barrows, presented me with a free ticket to make the passage from Chicago to Ceylon via Honolulu, and when the steamer arrived in the Honolulu harbour, Mrs. Foster and her friends came on board.
I have no idea how they came to know of my presence on board the steamer, but they came and Mrs. Foster wished to know whether Buddhism can help her to subdue her indomitable anger which she was unable to control, and I gave the simple psychological advice given by the Lord Buddha to cultivate the will power and to repeat the formula “I will be I will control the rising anger”. She practised the method and succeeded and thenceforth she would annually send small contributions for the work I was doing. She knew of my movements through the Maha Bodhi journal, but made no appeal to her for help. In August 1902, I was at Los Angeles, California, and then the thought came to me to found a movement to help the illiterate children of the neglected people of Northern India, and to found an agricultural school at Sarnath, Benares. The impulse came then to write to Mrs. Mary Foster about my project, and I wrote her explaining the scheme, and in reply I got aletter from her dated October 16, 1902, enclosing a cheque for 500 dollars. The Foster Industrial School Fund was forthwith started. A lady friend who takes interest in Indian social affairs asked me to help her, and I contributed 250 dollars out of this money. In January 19031 got a few friends in San Francisco to start a committee to manage the Indo-American Industrial Propaganda fund, and had Mrs. E.J. Eaton of San Francisco Theosophical Society elected Secretary. I spent the whole of the year 1903 in visiting educational centres in various parts of the United States. On the 3rd January 1903 Mrs. Foster sent me a further donation of 3.000 dollars which was forwarded to the Calcutta Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank and the Foster Industrial School Fund was opened. I purchased the necessary agricultural implements from Montgomery Ward & Co., Chicago, and had them despatched to Calcutta and the agricultural school was established at Sarnath in June 1904 under the guidance of an American agricultural instructor selected by Boston Committee. The school met with lot of opposition from the orthodox Theosophists of Benares, and the Commissioner of Benares desired that the American should be sent away.
The technical side of the school collapsed, but I had the vernacular branch kept up, and it is still going on, and there is every hope that a college will be started shortly. The sacred site of Sarnath, ancient Isipatana, which has now an exquisitely beautiful Vihara, will within this year become a centre of spiritual attraction. In February 1906 my father passed away, and I wrote to Mrs. Foster that my benefactor who had helped me to spread the Dhamma since 1891 was no more, and Mrs. Foster sent me a gracious reply that she would take care of me and asked me to look upon her as my “foster parent”. From 1906 forward Mrs. Foster annually began sending me a contribution for my work. The money thus received was spent on permanent educational work in Ceylon. Nothing was spent for any temporary work. The current expenses of the Maha Bodhi Society were met from the allow- ance which I received from the Estate of my late father. The permanency of the Maha Bodhi Society is therefore assured.
When I came to Calcutta in March 1891 nothing was known of Buddhism and there was no place where a Buddhist could stay in Calcutta When I arrived in Calcutta and impulse led me to call on Babu Neel Comul Mookherjee. Secretary of the Bengal Theosophical Society at 22 Beniapukur Road, and he received me kindly and offered me hospitality, and for a week I was his guest, and when again I returned to Calcutta to begin Maha Bodhi work, I was welcomed by both Neel Comul Babu and his only son Babu Neerod Nath Mookherjee. On that day I resolved to build a Buddhist Vihara in Calcutta, a dream realised after the erection of the Dharmarajika Vihara in College Square, Calcutta, in December 1920. For 17 years the society had no permanent habitation in Calcutta, and the first permanent habitation was secured in July 1908, thanks to Mrs. Mary Foster’s contribution of Rs. 12,000. In June 1916 the Government of India through the Educational Minister offered the Maha Bodhi Society two sacred Relics of the Lord Buddha provided we built two Viharas, one in Calcutta and the other at Sarnath, Benares. The offer was accepted, and I wrote in reply that the Maha Bodhi Society would spend Rs. 50,000 for the Calcutta Vihara, and the Vihara was begun on the site at 4A, College Square.
We received not a penny form Japan or Siam or Burma for the building for the Dharmarajika Vihara. My late brother Dr. C.A. Hewavitarne and his friend Mr. N.D.S. Silva sent a handsome donation of four thousand rupees for the building Fund. The Maharajah of Baroda and Mr. G.D. Birla contributed Rs. 10,000 and Rs. 5,000 respectively and Mrs. Mary Foster contributed Rs. 65,123 and the beautiful Dharmarajika Chaitya Vihara was the result. The desire that I had cherished in my heart since 1891 was fulfilled.
In January 1915, at my request Mrs. Foster sent me Rs. 17,781 to build a Mausoleum at Sarnath, for seven years nothing could be done as the Government of India had me interned in Calcutta during the war, and I was able to visit Sarnath in 1922 and steps were taken to build the present Mulagandhakuti Vihara, since the Government of India had promised to present a sacred body Relic of the Lord Buddha to be deposited at Sarnath. The Government was prepared to present the Relic if we spent Rs. 30,000 in building a Vihara I deposited the Foster money in the Imperial Bank, Benares, and went to Europe to secure medical treatment.
I was away in Europe and in October 1927 the building of the Mulagandhi Vihara was started. The Industrial school at Sarnath was started in 1901 with the help of the Foster Industrial Fund, and the Mulagandhakuti Vihara building was started with the Foster contribution which had then increased to Rs. 30,000. The Vihara building when completed would cost Rs. 111,000. We have yet to pay to the Contractor about Rs. 18,000 and I expected this deficit would be made good by Mrs. Foster, but death has removed her to a higher sphere of celestial joy.
The London Buddhist Mission was being maintained by the joint efforts of Mrs. Mary Foster and myself and now that she is dead the executors of the Estate of Mrs. Foster have already stopped the monthly contribution of £61-10. The Great historic mission to enlighten the British people has a great future. I trust the sisters of Mrs. Mary Foster will continue the payment of the monthly contribution. The London Buddhist Mission House at 41 Gloucester Road shall stand as a monument of glory to the memory of Mrs. Mary Foster.
For forty years I have laboured hard in the field of the Lord Buddha. At Buddha-Gaya I succeeded in having built a Dharmasala for the use of Buddhist pilgrims. But for the spacious rest-house Buddhists would have no place to stay during the period of the pilgrimage. The Saivite mahant has no right to say that he is the proprietor of the most holy shrine of 475 million of Buddhists. The Dharmasala that I have built at Gaya after 35 years of effort will I hope be a centre of Buddhist activity. The Isipatana, modern Sarnath, will, I hope, become a centre of spiritual attraction. the Calcutta Dharmarajika Vihara and the Maha Bodhi Library are both useful centres for scholars and pilgrims. We need the library to be enlarged. A few more cottahs of land have to be purchased to build a bigger hall for the library. Isipatana requires more accommodation for the Samanera students and also pilgrims rest.
In 1891 January when I visited Sarnath the hallowed site was occupied by hog breeders. In 1901 with great effort, I purchased a few bighas of land for the use of Buddhists. The Archaeological Department began excavations in 1904 and reaped a rich harvest. Single- handed I persevered but no help could be got from the Buddhists of Burma, Siam, and other countries. Thanks to the unparalleled generosity of Mrs. Mary Foster, the Buddhists have now a beautiful dominating shrine with a hundred feet tower. No Sinhalese Buddhist came forward to help me in my single-handed efforts. No Burmese, no Siamese, no Japanese, no Chinese, no Tibetan came forward to co-operate with me. But from distant Honolulu help came from Mrs. Mary Foster to revive the Sasana in India and establish a new the Sasana in England. There is none to take her place in the Buddhist world. Wealthy Buddhists are all dead. Self- sacrificing Bhikkhus are rare. India will again. supply young heroes to preach the doctrine of Ahimsa, Karuna, and Maitri…wearing the yellow Robe. I have worked for India since 1891, and now I am an invalid with the only wish in my heart to die on the holy ground where stands the Mulagandhakuti Vihara.”
These words speak amply and eloquently of the large heartedness, generosity and devotion to the Dhamma of this great and noble benefactress from distant Honolulu, Hawaii U.S.A. Mary Elizabeth Foster.
The Late Mrs Mary, E. Foster’s Legacy
The last gracious act of the late Mrs. Mary E.Foster, the never-failing friend of the Sri Devamitta Dhammapala, was to leave in her last will a sum of $ 50,000 to him for the improvement of the Foster Schools and Hospitals. In the history of modern Buddhism, there is no one equal to Mrs. Foster for her magnanimous generosity. She has been truly called the “Visakha of the Modern Buddhist World”. May her noble aspirations be fulfilled. The following is the extract in her last will referring to the legacy above mentioned: –
“Sixth: Whereas, one Anagarika H. Dharmapala of Calcutta, India, has opened and now has in operation The Anagarika Dharmapala Schools and Hospitals in India and on the Island of Ceylon, which schools and hospitals are known as the Mrs. T.R. Foster Schools and Hospitals and in which schools and hospitals I am greatly interested and desiring that they may become prosperous and enduring institutions, and to assist the said Anagarika H. Dharmapala in their maintenance, I give and bequeath to the said Anagarika H. Dharmapala the sum of Fifty Thousand Dollars ($50,000.00) to endow, or add to the endowment of the said schools and hospitals, and the payment of the said sum to the said Anagarika H. Dharmapala or to his successor and his receipt therefor shall exonerate my said executors from seeing to the application of the said sum of Fifty Thousand Dollars ($50,000.00).”
