Ananda Metteyya’s Mission to Britain and Return to Colonial Burma
The Life of Allan Bennett, Bhikkhu Ananda Metteyya - (Volume 1 of Allan Bennett, Bhikkhu Ananda Metteyya: Biography and Collected Writings) - Elizabeth J. Harris
Elizabeth J. Harris [+]
University of Birmingham
John L. Crow [+]
Florida State University
Description
Chapter Four focuses on Ananda Metteyya’s six-month mission to Britain in 1908 and his last years in Burma. The mission occupied a liminal space between success and failure. Ananda Metteyya had hoped that thousands would convert to Buddhism. Although this did not happen, Metteyya left behind a functioning, if cash-strapped, Buddhist Society for Great Britain and Ireland, and a nucleus of committed western Buddhists. After returning to Burma, his last six years in the country were marred by illness, the struggle to keep the Buddhist Society in London financially afloat, disappointed hopes and a legal case that went to court in 1910, which implicated him as a former friend of Aleister Crowley, who, by that time, had acquired a notorious reputation. Yet, he continued to write and maintain international contacts, for instance with the Theosophical Society. This chapter uncovers the forces that gathered around Ananda Metteyya in these years, tarnishing his reputation and abilities.