Page 20 - Wesak as a Public Holiday and Its Social Psychological Significance

Wesak as a Public Holiday and Its Social Psychological Significance

The impact of this debate was Outside the country, the debate
great. Within the country, it rebuilt the brought about a butterfly effect. The
confidence of Sinhalese Buddhists, Times of Ceylon recorded and translated
accelerated the Buddhist revival the debate into English (and had since
movement, and sow the seeds of been reprinted till today), a spiritual
Sinhalese nationalism. Prior to this, minister J. M. Peebles compiled it into a
B u d d h i s m w a s p o r t r a y e d a s a b o o k 1 2 e n t i t l e d “ B u d d h i s m a n d
superstitious and animistic belief, and the Christianity Face to Face” (Fig. 9), and
morale of Buddhists were low. After the posted a copy to an American Colonel
debate, Buddhists regained their self- Steel Olcott (Fig. 10). After reading the
confidence, and vigorously worked for book, Olcott decided to come to Sri
Buddhist revival. In terms of politics, Lanka. On 17 May 1880 he arrived Sri
th
Ceylonese who were hitherto unable to Lanka, and on 19 May he took refuge in
th
breakthrough the political and military the Triple Gem in front of thousands of
dominance of the British, found Buddhist devotees, thus became the first
themselves winning a battle that white American to embrace Buddhism.
awakened them to the possibility of self- He would later become an outstanding
rule and independence leader in the revival of Buddhism in recent
times.

Fig. 10 ：Colonel Steel Olcott

Fig. 9： Cover Page of “Buddhism and
Christianity Face to Face”. Content of the
book is available in the internet

12. A Christan priest, AG Fraser, attempted to stop the publication of this book. This is another proof that
Buddhist won the debate.

Chapter 2: The Sri Lankan Connection Page19