This should be of particular interest to those interested in the Pali language. Nyanatiloka
was one of the earliest translators of the Pali texts into German and was instrumental in
Theravada's rebirth in a number of aspects.
I've been asked by BPS (Buddhist Publication Society in Sri Lanka) to gather up more
information about Nyanatiloka, the great teacher who came to British Ceylon in the first
decade of the last century, took ordination, the first continental European to do so, and
founded the Island Hermitage in Ceylon as a place for non-Asian seekers.
He lived a long life and had a profound effect on bringing the Theravada teachings of the
Buddha to the attention of the modern world. His students founded BPS. Both the Island
Hermitage and BPS continue to this day. Nyanatiloka's dates are 1878-1957. Strangely
there's no profile on him on Wikipedia, and the very thinnest of profiles on Nyanaponika
one of Nyanatiloka's major students and a co-founder of BPS.
We're looking for two kinds of help.
1. First, we're looking for details on Nyanatiloka's life from the time he was interned by the
British as an enemy alien at the start of the Second World War in 1939, right through to
Nyanatiloka's death in 1957. Oddly, we have lots of rich detail on the first three-quarters
of Nyanatiloka's life, much of it from his own hand, but barely anything from the period of
the writing of the great Buddhist Dictionary and Nyanaponika's hand in encouraging the
founding of BPS, and everything in between.
We're looking for pointers, both on the web and off, snippets, photos, whatever. If
anything gets published we'll ask explicit permission prior to use. Right now we're on the
hunt for what's available. We're open to additional material from 1878 to 1939, but that
period is already rich in detail.
2. Second, we're looking for assessments on Nyanatiloka's life and his affect on the
birthing of Theravada Buddhism beyond southeast Asia. While most individuals who knew
Nyanatiloka personally are now themselves gone, we're looking for both contemporary and
past writers commentaries on this quite remarkable figure. Again, we'll ask for explicit
permission to publish prior to use. Right now, we're looking for what's available.
If you can help in either of these two objects, please respond to this posting here and we'll
make further contact. Let's use the internet to recover this corner of our collective past.