Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Hampstead Buddhist Vihāra 1

2016; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 17; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/14639947.2016.1189132

1476-7953

Russell Webb,

Anthropological Studies and Insights

AbstractThe author offers a brief history of the Hampstead Buddhist Vihāra, a residence and Dhamma centre purchased by the English Sangha Trust (EST) as part of a strategy to establish an indigenous British bhikkhu Sangha. Drawing on official publications of the EST, other contemporary documents and personal reminiscence, the narrative runs from the initial founding through to the sale of the properties accrued, leading to the establishment of rural monastic residences and retreat centres including Chithurst Forest Monastery and Amaravati. The activities of the HBV, including ordinations and publications, are also reviewed, the whole offered as documentation of details of one of the early attempts to establish the Sangha in the West. AcknowledgmentsThe author wishes to express his gratitude to Dr Andrew Skilton for encouraging me to publish this essay and suggesting qualitative additions to the text.NotesArising out of his wish that the pioneer history of Buddhism in the UK should not be lost to posterity, as former Secretary of the British Mahābodhi Society the present author self-published London Buddhist Vihāra: A Chronicle (Webb Citation2004), and has compiled this brief survey of the Hampstead Buddhist Vihāra, which he frequented from its opening in 1962. This survey was prepared mainly with reference to the official publications and announcements that emanated from the EST whose archive was transferred to Amaravati Buddhist Monastery, Great Gaddesden, Hemel Hempstead, Herts HP1 3BZ (tel. 01442 842455). Unfortunately, the ‘Forest Tradition’ of the Thai-trained English Sangha, the spiritual successors to the EST seem indifferent to maintaining a historical record of events and personages, which will prove a cause for regret in the future when an in-depth, comprehensive survey of Buddhism in the UK is attempted.2 See Shine Citation2002, 29–56. Downloadable from either www.aimwell.org or www.buddhanet.net ebooks. This labour of love is subtitled ‘Tribute to the Venerable Kapilavaddho … and brief History of the Development of Theravada Buddhism in the UK’. It concentrates on events and personalities connected to the EST during the ‘reign’ of Kapilavaḍḍho and includes an invaluable ‘Chronology’ on pp.109–121, but it is to be regretted that the compiler did not use the opportunity to compose a detailed history of the Hampstead Buddhist Vihāra together with biographies of the dramatis personae.3 Born in London 1911, he received his higher education at London (where he obtained an MA), Berlin, Freiburg, Göttingen and Vienna. He became Reader in German at Nottingham University (1946–52) and at Bedford College, London. After his retirement in 1979 he was appointed Deputy Director of the Institute of Germanic Studies at London University. He was a Vice-President of The Buddhist Society for many years and was elected Chairman of the EST in 1962. He died in Berkhamsted in 1998. Apart from contributing numerous articles to The Middle Way, he compiled Buddhism for Today (London Citation1962), Pali and the Pali Canon (EST, 1968), and translated H.W. Schumann The Historical Buddha (London Citation1989), Govinda A Living Buddhism for the West (Boston and Shaftesbury Citation1990), Loden Sherap Dagyab Buddhist Symbols in Tibetan Culture (London Citation1995), the complete Dīgha Nikāya––Thus Have I Heard: The Long Discourses of the Buddha (Boston Citation1987, 1995) and Meister Eckhart’s Sermons and Treatises (3 vols, London 1979–87). He left a typescript of his projected ‘Concise Dictionary of Buddhism’ over which I corresponded with him in some detail. Sadly, this is unlikely to see the light of day in view of more expansive commercial publications in the field over recent years.4 I was given to understand that the property was paid for by a Stock Exchange speculator, Henry James Newlyn, who had previously financed the Rāmakrishna Mission to the tune of £½m which enabled the headquarters to be established in Holland Park. He subsequently bankrolled Ven. Sangharakshita and the fledgling FWBO during the next decade. However, according to Shine (Citation2002), Newlyn was recorded in the minutes of the EST for September 1959 as having donated £24,000, a considerable sum for the time and one, no doubt, that formed the lion’s share of the eventual purchase price for 131 Haverstock Hill.5 As Peter Morgan, he was first ordained as a sāmaņera at the London Buddhist Vihāra on 31 October 1955. He then flew to Thailand with Kapilavaḍḍho where the former was ordained a bhikkhu at Wat Paknam, Thonburi, on 27 January 1956. Returning later that year, he was resident at Hampstead until November 1961 when he flew back to Thailand and remained at Wat Pa Baan Tad, near Udorn Thani (except for a brief visit to Hampstead in June 1974) until his death on 18 August 2004 aged 79.6 Born in Canada, Leslie Dawson was ordained Sāmaņera Ananda at Sarnath in late 1958 and subsequently went to Rangoon where he became Bhikkhu Ananda Bodhi at the Shwe Dagon pagoda. After his return to Canada in 1964, he established a centre in Toronto, underwent a Tibetan ordination (taking the name Namgyal Rinpoche) and died in 2003.7 Dennis Lingwood was born 1925 in London and conscripted into the Army to serve in India during the Second World War. Just prior to being ‘called up’, he had encountered (and embraced) Buddhism in 1942 and, after leaving the Army, he persuaded the seniormost bhikkhu in India, the Burmese U Chandramani, to ordain him as a sāmaṇera at Kusinagara on 12 May 1949 and as a bhikkhu at the Burmese Temple, Sarnath, on 24 November 1950. For further details see his partial autobiography, Sangharakshita Citation1976, Citation1988, Citation1993 and Citation2003.8 See its ‘Statement’ published in Sangha 8.10, October 1964 (2–4), and Buddhist News (London Buddhist Vihāra) 1.6, October 1964, reproduced Webb Citation2004, 67–68.9 He was later promoted with the title and new monastic name of Chao Khun Sobhana Dhammasudhi, directed The Buddhapadīpa Temple at East Sheen, Surrey (1966), and The Vipassanā Centre, Hindhead, Surrey (1968), disrobed in 1971, reverting to his lay name, V. R. Dhiravamsa, and emigrating to the USA where he runs a meditation centre in Washington State.10 John Richards was educated at Eton and was employed by the Russian Department of the Foreign Office. He was ordained a sāmaṇera by the Head of the London Buddhist Vihāra, H. Saddhātissa, on 12 March 1960 and as a bhikkhu exactly a year later in Rangoon. At the end of 1967, however, he disrobed, and became first a schoolteacher in Newcastle-upon-Tyne before adopting the vocation of a Christian pastor and undertaking ordination in the Church of England for which he served as a vicar in Pembrokeshire!11 A taxi driver from Brighton, Eric Bransden was ordained by Sangharakshita and Thien Chau, and was the first English novice ordained on English soil by an English monk. He went to Van Hanh University, Saigon, in February 1967, but returned and disrobed 18 months later.12 See M. O’C. Walshe’s eulogy to ‘Kapilavaddho Bhikkhu’ , Walshe Citation1972 and Shine Citation2002.13 Alan James was ordained a sāmaņera by Sobhana Dhammasudhi at The Buddhapadīpa Temple on 12 May 1968 and a bhikkhu on 9 July the same year. He disrobed exactly two years later, became Secretary of the ES Fellowship, married Randall’s widow, Jacqui, on 29 March 1972 and ‘retired’ with her to Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, where they maintained a residential meditation centre.14 He was a former Royal Navy officer and graduate in medicine and psychology.