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Message: <blockquote data-quote="netlife007" data-source="post: 16946254" data-attributes="member: 79514">[FONT=&quot]HENRY STEELE OLCOTT  & THE BUDDHIST THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]Colonel Olcott came  to Sri Lanka on the 17th May 1880, and joined forces with Mohottiwatte Gunananda  Thera and all prominent Bhikkhu leaders to help accelerate the activities of the  Buddhist revival movement that has gained extraordinary momentum at the time.  After he came to the island with the support of Buddhist leaders he formed the  Buddhist Theosophical Society where he worked tirelessly for the revival of  Buddhism in Sri Lanka. As a dynamic leader of this movement, he was able to deal  effectively with the colonial rulers. The Buddhist Theosophical Society was  instrumental in opening schools to provide  Buddhism- based  education to the younger generation. [/FONT] [FONT=&quot] [/FONT] [FONT=&quot]In 1881full moon day  of Vesak, Colonel Olcott, with the support of prominent Bhikkhu leaders  inaugurated at Kelaniya a Buddhist National Fund for the promotion of the  religious and secular education of Buddhist children and the dissemination of  Buddhist Literature. Starting in 1881 Buddhist Sunday schools were started in  several places within Colombo  including Pettah, Kotahena, Borella,  Maradana, Barber Street, Messenger Street, Slave Island, Peliyagoda and  Panchikawatte.  In 1886, the Sunday school in Pettah was converted  to the Pettah Buddhist English School which was soon subject to improvement and  became Ananda College. The initiative and interest taken by Venerable Maha  Theras such as Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala, Mohottiwattte Gunananda,   Weligama Sumangala, Dodanduwe Piyarathana Tissa in furthering Buddhist  education and in the establishment of Buddhist schools received a tremendous  boost with the active involvement in this work of Colonel Olcott, who was  particularly keen in promoting Buddhist English schools. This gave much strength  to the Buddhist revival that was taking place across the country in the late  19th century.     [/FONT] [FONT=&quot] [/FONT] [FONT=&quot]In 1888 there were  eight Buddhist schools which increased to 99 in the year 1898. In 1898 there  were 11,577 children in Buddhist schools. The Roman Catholics had 30,425;  Wesleyans 22,808; Church of Mission 14,110. Thus Buddhists had the fourth place  in regard to the number of pupils in their schools. In 1899 there were 134  schools in the list of Buddhist schools with an attendance of 15,490 children.  In 1900 the number of schools increased to 150 in the Buddhist Theosophical  Society’s list. [/FONT] [FONT=&quot] [/FONT] [FONT=&quot]By 1902 the success  of Buddhist work was so alarming to the Christians that the church missionary  Society passed a resolution in that year against the employment of Christians  who had at any time served in Buddhist schools. But this does not seem to have  made much impression because in the following year the number of Buddhist   schools had risen to 174. No less than 185 schools of the Society drew a  sum of Rs. 48,502.90 from government by way of grant in 1904.[/FONT] [FONT=&quot] [/FONT] [FONT=&quot]That same year the  Rev. G.B.Ekanayake writing in “East and West “ showed a remarkable change in the  attitude of the Christians church toward the Buddhist revival. The contemptuous  indifference which in the earlier stage assigned to the revival an ephemeral  existence and the violent opposition subsequently directed against it. Ekanayaka  did not hesitate to admit that the current of Christian’s conversion had been  effectually stemmed by the Buddhist revival. [/FONT] [FONT=&quot] [/FONT] [FONT=&quot]In 1907 there were  215 schools of the Society of which 186 with an attendance of 23,975 had  registered. In 1909 the number of schools increased to 224 and in 1914 to   230, and in 1915 to 249 schools. In 1917, the Buddhist Girls’ College  (now Visaka Vidyalaya) was started. The 17 Buddhist English schools established  under the Buddhist Theosophical Society  with an attendance of over  5,000 pupils with a staff of over 230 include Ananda College, Colombo; Nalanda  Vidyalaya, Colombo; Dharmaraja College, Kandy; Ananda Sastralaya, Kotte; Olcott  Vidyalaya, Colombo; Jinaraja Vidyalaya, Gampola, Taxila Vidyalaya, Horana; Sri  Pada Vidyalaya, Hatton; Rahula Vidyalaya, Katugostota; Vijaya college, Matale;  Anurudda College, Nawalapitiya; Buddhist English Mixed School, Dodanduwa;  Mahinda Vidyalaya, Anuradapura; Gamini Vidyalaya,  Bentota; and  Suriya Vidyalaya, Kolonnawa. The Sinhalese schools that were established at the  time had an attendance of nearly 70,000 children. [/FONT]</blockquote>

Verification: Awruddata maasa keeyada?

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