The Colonel and the clairvoyant

The importance of the visit to the island of Colonel Henry Steele Olcott and Madame Helena Blavatsky in 1880 cannot be overestimated; it meant the beginning of Buddhist English education (the Pettah English School or Ananda followed by so many others) and a veritable revolution that gave birth to Anagarika Dharmapala.

Colonel Olcott and Madame Blavatsky took pansil in Vijayananda Pirivena, Galle on their first day in Ceylon. It is said that even the other members of the Theosophical Society were awed by Madame Blavatsky’s supernormal powers. Of Russian nobility, she was also a spirit medium.