Britain

Britain. British interest in Buddhism developed during the colonial period when a stream of officials and administrators were posted to different parts of the British Empire in Asia, and particularly to India and Sri Lanka. Sir William Jones (1746–94) founded the Asiatic Society of Bengal (subsequently the Royal Asiatic Society) in 1784, and the Society began to collect and study oriental manuscripts. The earliest Buddhist texts to be studied were Mahāyāna Sanskrit manuscripts collected in Nepal by the British Resident, B. H. Hodgson. Another British civil servant who made an outstanding contribution to the study of Theravāda Buddhism was T. W. Rhys Davids (1843–1922). Rhys Davids became interested in Buddhism during his residence in Sri Lanka and went on to found the Pāli Text Society in 1881. The Society remains to this day the most important outlet for the publication of texts and translations of Pāli Buddhist literature. Interest in Buddhism was heightened by Sir Edwin Arnold's famous poem The Light of Asia, which inspired Westerners to seek ordination. Among them was C. A. B. McGregor (1872–1923) who was ordained in 1901 as Ananda Metteya and who inspired the foundation of the Buddhist Society of Great Britain and Ireland in 1907 with his mission to England in 1908. The Theravāda form of Buddhism was predominant in Britain until the middle of the 20th century when other groups, notably zen and Tibetan (see Tibet), began to arrive.

Britain has not been affected by mass Buddhist immigration since most of the Asian immigrants to the United Kingdom have been Hindus and Muslims. In contrast to the USA (see America), there are only around 50,000 refugees from Indo-China in Britain. The majority of British Buddhists are therefore Caucasians who have converted to Buddhism, and most are middle-class. There are something of the order of 200,000 Buddhists in Britain belonging to some 100 Tibetan centres, 90 Theravāda centres, and around 100 or so other groups, including the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order.