Chiswick’s Buddhist Vihara celebrates 100 years of Buddhism in the UK

London Buddhist Vihara on The Avenue in Bedford Park

London Buddhist Vihara celebrates its centenary

The Buddhist Vihara on The Avenue in Bedford Park celebrated its centenary at the weekend.

The celebration marked not only 100 years of the London Vihara, but 100 years of Buddhism in the UK. Dr Desmond Biddulph CBE was invited to give the founders day memorial lecture. Dr Biddulph is President of the Buddhist Society.

An author, lecturer medical doctor and psychiatrist, he has written several books on Buddhism and published textbooks and journals for international universities and institutions on South Asian and Buddhist studies. He was awarded a CBE by the King when he was still Prince Charles for his interfaith work.

Dr Biddulph talked about the history of Buddhism in Sri Lanka; how it had been brought there from Northern India and survived successive waves of colonial invasion by the Portuguese, the British and the Dutch.

He told the audience at the Vihara the seeds of Sri Lankan nationalism were inextricably linked with the Buddhist revival and how gradually over a period of 100 years or more people in the West had begun to discover Buddhism.

Dr Desmond Biddulph CBE

Sir Edwin Arnold’s book The Light of Asia in 1879, which chronicled the life, spiritual journey and teachings of Prince Gautma Siddhartha, who became Buddha, was hugely influential at the end of the 19th century, translated into over 30 languages, influencing thinkers, activists, and leaders worldwide.

Also, the foundation of the Theosophical Society in New York in 1875 by Helena Blavatski and Henry Steel Olcott. Visiting Sri Lanka, then Ceylon, they became the first people from the United States to formally convert to Buddhism.

Dr Biddulph told the audience how they met Anagarika Dharmapala, then a young man, and drove all over Sri Lanka on a bus sharing the teaching of Buddhism, building schools and conducting missions.

Henry Steel Olcott came to Chiswick to lecture at the Bedford Park Social Club in 1889, the building which was later to become the Vihara. A young WB Yeats attended the lecture and met him and Mme Blavatsky.

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In 1893 Dharmapala was invited to attend the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago as a representative of ‘Southern Buddhism’. By his early thirties he had become a global figure, travelling the world while at the same time establishing schools and hospitals in Sri Lanka and building temples and viharas in India.

He was invited to London in 1924 and founded the London Vihara in 1926. London was then and is now a magnet for the world’s religions, Dr Biddolph told the audience.

L to R: Anagarika Dharmapala, Helena Blavatsky, Col. Henry Steel Olcott, Sir Edwin Arnold and Mary Foster

By 1926 Anagarika Dharmapala was in his early sixties. He decided to settle temporarily in England and with a generous donation from an American benefactor, Hawaiian Theosophist Mary Foster, he was able to bring a monk over from Sri Lanka and set up a temple initially in Ealing.

According to newspaper accounts, Foster had met Dharmapala when she travelled to Sri Lanka to study with the Buddhist monks at Anuradhapura. Dharmapala saw the importance of establishing a vihara in London as it was the centre of the British Empire.

The London Buddhist Vihara was the first Buddhist monastery to be established outside the continent of Asia and continues to be a leading centre for Theravada Buddhism.

The London Vihara opened their centenary year with celebrations in May last year. The Vihara has not always been based in Chiswick. The monks did not make Chiswick their home until 1964 and did not move to their current premises on The Avenue until 1994.

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Amal Abeyawardene, director of the British MahaBodhi Society, thanked Dr Biddulph for his lecture. He told the audience they had started the series of talks in 2022 “to show the broad range of Buddhist activism and endeavours that are relevant in the modern day”.

As they begin the next chapter of the Vihara’s history, they are looking at creating cultural tours of India and Sri Lanka so people can visit the great Buddhist sites and  understand Buddhism better.

They will also hold a one day conference at the Vihara on Saturday 10 October on the theme of Buddhism in Britain.