Dhammaloka before Dhammaloka

This chapter discusses the evidence for the early life of the Irishman who was ordained as the Buddhist monk Dhammaloka in Rangoon in 1900, exploring the contradictory accounts he later gave and his multiple aliases. Probably born Laurence Carroll in Dublin in 1856, he worked his way across the Irish Sea and the Atlantic, then crossed the United States as a hobo (migrant worker) before working his way across the Pacific. However, this account leaves over two decades unaccounted for, raising more questions than it answers. The chapter discusses possible explanations and explores the various radical contexts where he might have acquired his undoubted political skills. It notes finally the number of ethnic boundaries he crossed, and concludes that he had probably abandoned exclusive ethnic affiliations long before his ordination as a Buddhist monk.

Dhammaloka’s Last Years and a Mysterious Death

This chapter discusses the radical Irish Buddhist monk U Dhammaloka’s trial for sedition in Moulmein and subsequent court appeal in Rangoon, setting these in the wider context of Burmese, Indian, and imperial politics. It explores the reasons for his apparent flight to Australia after his binding-over was completed, attempts by the Burmese police to pursue him there, and the report of his death in Melbourne. It also explores his connections with Australian Theosophy and temperance and a possible link to Thursday Island. The chapter reflects on Dhammaloka’s significance in terms of his personal consistency as a Buddhist, the challenge social movements in his time faced in trying to see beyond the horizon of colonialism, and the plebeian cosmopolitanism exemplified by Dhammaloka himself, which would soon become forgotten with the rise of ethnically based nation-states.

The Vagabond Traveler’s Account

In May 1905 the American “vagabond writer,” Harry Franck, interviewed the Irish Buddhist monk U Dhammaloka at length in India, and watched him in action debating with a Christian evangelist. Franck’s book, published in 1910, would briefly make Dhammaloka a global celebrity. This chapter introduces Franck and considers his experiences in Ceylon. It discusses his assessment of Dhammaloka’s credibility, as ex-hobo and Buddhist traveler, and explores the interview with Dhammaloka and the debate about Christianity. It shows Dhammaloka’s ability to arrange for Franck and his two companions to find board and lodging at monasteries in Chittagong and Rangoon. Most importantly, it shows us how Dhammaloka appeared to the eyes of his “poor white” beachcombing peers.

The Irish Buddhist Wins Burmese Hearts

This chapter deals with the period 1900–2, discussing the ordination and early Burmese career as a monk of the Irish Buddhist U Dhammaloka. It addresses the religious politics of his higher ordination, offers a detailed account of his prestigious ordination ceremony and examines the meaning of his monastic name “Dhammaloka.” During successful tours of rural Burma in the two years after his ordination Dhammaloka rapidly became a celebrity monk, drawing audiences of thousands with his call to revitalize Buddhism and his challenges to Christian missionaries. The chapter sets Dhammaloka in the wider context of the Burmese Buddhist politics of the day and assesses the extent to which he became a characteristic Theravada monk despite his Irish origins.

Introduction

This chapter introduces the radical Irish Buddhist monk U Dhammaloka with a vignette of his trial for sedition in the Chief Court of colonial Rangoon, Burma, in 1911. It discusses his analysis of colonialism as “the Bible, the bottle, and the Gatling gun” and outlines the bare essentials of his life. The chapter discusses Dhammaloka as a window into Asian networks of the period, the anomalous position of “poor whites” in colonial Asia and the establishment fear of such people “going native,” epitomized by converts to Buddhism. It discusses the challenges of researching Dhammaloka’s life as “history from below” through the available sources, as well as how his biography challenges received notions of early Western Buddhists. Finally, it discusses the long-term impact of pan-Asian Buddhist movements in the high colonial period and the alternative visions they represented of a world after empire.

A Controversial Tour of Ceylon

In late 1909, the Sinhalese Buddhist activist Anagarika Dharmapala hosted the Irish Buddhist monk U Dhammaloka on a controversial tour of Ceylon (Sri Lanka). This tour is well-documented from many different perspectives: Dharmapala’s private diaries, his newspaper Sinhala Bauddhaya, the hostile colonial and missionary press, and transcriptions of Dhammaloka’s preaching. This chapter shows backstage tension between Dhammaloka and his hosts as they followed a punishing schedule of events drawing large audiences across Ceylon; conflict with Christians who wrote against the tour, attempted to disrupt it, and sought government intervention; and the actions of police and government. Dhammaloka’s abrupt departure from Ceylon appears as the culmination of these conflicts. The chapter offers a detailed insight into the day-to-day workings of contentious religious politics during the Buddhist revival.

A Print Revolution

This chapter discusses the Irish Buddhist monk U Dhammaloka’s activities in Burma in 1907–8, notably establishing the Buddhist Tract Society (BTS). This organization largely republished Western freethinking (atheist) arguments in order to challenge Christian missionaries, and by implication colonial authority. The chapter discusses the practicalities of publishing as a form of social movement organizing, with reference to what is known about the BTS’s activities. It explores those BTS tracts whose content is known, and traces their intellectual sources. It further discusses the roots of Dhammaloka’s own freethought with reference to atheism and anti-clericalism in Ireland, Britain, the United States, and Asia, arguing that Dhammaloka was a characteristic product of the radical working-class intellectualism of the period.

Interlude

This chapter discusses early Western Buddhist monks around the turn of the twentieth century. It highlights the increased significance of the ordination of Westerners in this period, both from the colonial and Asian points of view. It discusses the careers of three early Western Buddhist monks: Asoka (Gordon Douglas), Ananda Metteyya (Allan Bennett), and Dhammaloka (?Laurence Carroll). The chapter explores the monastic politics of ordination and compares the lineages created by Ananda Metteyya and Dhammaloka. It looks at a wide range of early Western Buddhist monks, and in particular the issues of class raised by “beachcomber bhikkhus,” poor white converts. It goes on to explore three moments in Western Buddhist monasticism: a conventional ordination at the Tavoy monastery in Rangoon, an unusual ordination in Dhammaloka’s “English Buddhist Mission” in Singapore, and a contested disrobing at the same mission. It concludes by discussing the nature of legitimacy in these contexts.

Trampling on Our Religion

In 1901, within a year of his ordination and appearance on the public stage, the Irish Buddhist monk U Dhammaloka initiated conflict around an issue that would become central to Burmese nationalism in subsequent years. Europeans wearing shoes on Buddhist pagodas was both a sign of disrespect from a Burmese point of view, and fundamental to preserving racial hierarchies from a colonial point of view. Dhammaloka’s successful thematizing of the issue gave rise to a very public conflict with the authorities, and helped to make him a celebrity monk. The chapter examines how the conflict developed, explores the colonial and racial politics of footwear, and notes its wider impact.

Epitaph

This short chapter discusses the last days of the anti-colonial Irish Buddhist monk U Dhammaloka, following his reported death in Australia. It discusses sightings in Singapore, the Federated Malay States (Malaysia), and Siam (Thailand), as well as reports of time spent in Cambodia. The last recorded sightings are in Singapore in late 1913, including diary entries from the Sinhalese Buddhist activist Anagarika Dharmapala. It is not known what happened next, and surprising given his celebrity that the facts were not recorded. Did he perhaps die far from media attention following the outbreak of war, or change his identity in response to renewed police pressure?