First white Buddhist monk was IRISH (video)

TheDharmaBum.eu, Dana.IO/thedharmabum; Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

I think I'll be a Buddhist monk

The Dharma Bum is a feature-length, partially animated documentary film telling the tantalizing true story of Dubliner Laurence Carroll.

• Any relation to Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland? Of course not, for "Lewis Carroll" is the nom de plume for Irish-connected Dodgson.

Carroll was born in Dublin in 1856 and spent his early life as an alcoholic hobo drifter bumming his way across the USA.
 

I'm glad I became a Buddhist monk

This un-Catholic, un-Christian atheist activist worked the shipping route from San Francisco to Japan.

Then he found himself on the beach, hungover and homeless, after being kicked off the vessel for drunk and disorderly conduct.
 

He eventually made his way to Theravada Buddhist Burma, where he was helped by local Buddhist monks.

After five years as an apprentice, he became the first white man to ever don the saffron robes of a Buddhist monk.

Do it for Ireland, Laurence Carroll, and for the whole of the Western world!

 

UK-occupied Northern Ireland

They gave him the new Buddhist name U Dhammaloka.* And that is just the beginning of the story!

• [*In Burmese U signifies "sir," Dhamma is the Pali spelling of "Dharma," and loka means "world."]

U Dhammaloka was erased from history. His existence lay dormant for over 100 years. Why? The reasons are explored in the film.

Teach those Brits not to mess with the Celts

This man caused quite a stir in his life, as he singlehandedly took on the might of the Christian British Empire in colonial Burma.

• [George Orwell was also decrying British colonial crimes against humanity in Burma and England for which he wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four].

In the film we discover why he was under constant police surveillance and ultimately faked his own death as he transformed himself from an alcoholic bum to the original Dharma Bum. More