Bhikkhu Nyanatusita, Hellmuth Hecker, The Life of Ñāṇatiloka Thera (Buddhist Publication Society, bps.lk); Art Thomya Journey; Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
(Art Thomya Journey) Unseen India, Episode 1: Dehradun, Mussoorie, Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, Himalayan India.
In 1939, with the British declaration of war against Nazi Germany, Ven. Nyanatiloka and other German-born Sri Lankans were interned, first at Diyatalawa Garrison in Sri Lanka then in India (1941) at the large internment camp at Dehra Dun in the Himalayan foothills.
CHP. 21: INTERNMENT IN DEHRA DUN,
1939–1946
Once the British Government declared war on Germany, on Sept. 3, 1939, Ñāṇatiloka (Western Buddhist monk Ven. Nyanatiloka, the German Anton Gueth) -- author of the Buddhist Dictionary: A Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines and translator of The Path of Purification -- was immediately interned again.
Along with the other arrested Germans in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), 44 men altogether, they were brought to Colombo (capital of Sri Lanka) and kept there for a short time before being sent to the internment camp in Diyatalāva, just like in 1914, and there they remained for over two years.
Nanatiloka + Nanaponika (Gueth + Feniger) |
In the camp in Diyatalāva, with the help of Ñāṇamālita, Ñāṇatiloka finally managed to finish his German translation of the Buddhist Visuddhimagga ("The Path of Purification"). He had already done the
first seven of the 23 chapters in the Island Hermitage in Polgasduwa, Sri Lanka, in 1927. A
cyclostyled edition of 100 books was published.
The best Buddhist dictionary available (free) |
This internment camp was the biggest one in India, with several thousand inhabitants. It was situated on the upper reaches of the Ganges River, north of New Delhi, up among the fore-mountains (foothills) of the Himalayas and surrounded by tea plantations.
Somewhat higher on the mountains was the hill station of
Mussoorie. The area reminded Ñāṇatiloka of his stay in the Tessin in southern Switzerland in 1910. The barrack camp was surrounded by a double barbed-wire fence.
The British were fighting a hopeless war against the white termites that were continually eating up the wooden fence poles. Within this fence there were eight separate camp wings, each again surrounded by barbed wire, which housed different groups of people.
Of the four wings that were for the Germans, one was for anti-National Socialists, and three for the Nazis. Of these three German Nazi wings, one wing was for Germans from India
and Ceylon, one for Germans from Indonesia, and one for all other remaining.
The first of the other four wings was inhabited by Italian generals arrested in North Africa (who were further divided into fascist and anti-fascist sections), the second wing was for Italian Catholic missionaries, the third for others, and the fourth one was the hospital wing.
Dehra Dun statue of Tara and stupa |
The first German wing, Wing One, housed the so-called “Bara
Sahibs” (“Big Sahibs”), that is, members of the upper class, such as representatives of German companies, independent traders, doctors, missionaries (among whom were at first the Buddhist monks), teachers, and scientists, such as the members of the Nanga-Parbat mountaineering expedition.
The second German wing housed the so-called “Sumatra Heinis,” the German rubber planters who had been arrested by the Dutch on the Indonesian
island of Sumatra.
For most Germans who had been in other camps, the conditions in this camp seem to have been more humane than
those camps run by the Dutch, Japanese, or Russians. The barracks were well built, and the fresh air from the mountains was pleasant. However, for the Germans from Ceylon things were different.
Robber's Cave, Dehra Dun (wiki) |
In Diyatalāva, Sri Lanka, they had been living in relative luxury with their own rooms and good food, but now the German monks were living in barracks and tents. The internees were treated properly by the British, as they were cautious to preserve the natives’ esteem for the whites.
The camp was like a little town with a cinema, a soccer field, and two tennis courts. There was a workshop, library, hospital, a canteen, an orchestra, and even a school with authorization to give diplomas. Many internees kept animals and made gardens in front of their barracks.
The internees were also given holidays once or twice a week on word of honor [not to escape], so that they could go
for walks in the beautiful surroundings.
The German Buddhists were not all in the same wing.
Ñāṇatiloka and Vappo stayed in the “Bara sahib wing,” while Ñāṇaponika together with Ñāṇakhetta and his brother Ñāṇamālita, were in the “anti-Nazi wing.”
The Path of Purification (in English) |
At first there was no place for
Ñāṇaponika and the two other monks in the anti-Nazi wing and
they had to wait for half a year in Wing One before they could
join Govinda in his barrack.
Why did Ñāṇatiloka stay in Wing One? There appear to be
several reasons for this. One ought to take into account that
Ñāṇatiloka had grown up in a nationalistic, upper-class family
during the founding years of modern Germany.
When he
returned in 1919–1920 to the so-called Weimar Republic, he only
found chaos and the subversive activities of the Communists.
Furthermore, he had repeatedly experienced the extreme anti-German attitude of the British, who treated him as a spy. For six
years after WWI, they did not allow him to come
back to Ceylon.
Perhaps due to these negative experiences he
preferred to stay on the side of the German government. He
definitely did not harbor anti-Jewish feelings because his
disciples Ñāṇaponika, Ñāṇakhetta, and Ñāṇamālita were of
Jewish origin, and he had Jewish friends in his youth.
Nazis had
caused troubles for him at the Island Hermitage, Sri Lanka, in 1939, and it is
quite unlikely that he had an affinity for Nazism. It is also to be noted that Wing One’s official name was not
“Nazi Wing” and was not solely inhabited by Nazis because even Ven. Ñāṇaponika, who had a Jewish background, stayed there initially.
Dem Guts bikini (Nyanatusita/Google+) |
The relative comfort and smooth organization of the “Big
Sahib” wing, where he could get his own room and privacy, was
probably the decisive factor that made him stay there, rather
than at the anti-Nazi wing where he would have had to stay in a
barrack and where things were not so well organized.
His 1920
experience of the journey to Colombo on the ship with the
disorganized and disobedient Communist crew would have put
him off. In terms of the Buddhist monk’s monastic discipline (Pāṭimokkha), there is no fault in talking to unvirtuous persons and teaching
them Dharma.
If they are requested, Buddhist monks are even
allowed to stay and teach for a few days in army camps near
battle fields. In any case, Ñāṇatiloka stayed on in Wing One
together with the loyal Vappo.
On the other hand, Ven. Ñāṇaponika, as a Jewish victim of
Nazism had firsthand experience of harassment by Nazis. More + PHOTOS at the very bottom
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