Ceylon's Buddhist clergy had attempted to reform…

Ceylon's Buddhist clergy had attempted to reform the sangha (religious community) beginning around the middle of the nineteenth century,  particularly as a reaction against Christian missionary activities.

In the 1870s, Buddhist activists had enlisted the help of an American, Colonel Henry Steele Olcott.

An ardent abolitionist in the years leading up to the American Civil War, Olcott had cofounded and later became president of the Theosophical Movement, which has been organized on a worldwide basis to promote goodwill and to champion the rights of the underprivileged.

Shortly after his arrival in Sri Lanka, Olcott had organized a Buddhist campaign against British officials and British missionaries.

His Buddhist Theosophical Society of Ceylon has gone on to establish three institutions of higher learning: Ananda College, Mahinda College, and Dharmaraja College.

Olcott's society has founded these and some two hundred lower schools to impart Buddhist education with a strong nationalist bias.

Olcott and his society take a special interest in the historical past of the Sinhalese Buddhist kingdoms on the island and manage to persuade the British governor to make Vesak, the chief Buddhist festival, a public holiday.