The First Buddhist Mission to the West: Charles Pfoundes and the London Buddhist mission of 1889 – 1892

This article challenges two general assumptions shared by scholars of Western
Buddhism: (1) that the earliest Buddhist missions to the West were those established
in California from 1899 onwards; and (2) that Ananda Metteyya‘s (Allan Bennett‘s)
London mission of 1908 was the first Buddhist mission to London and thus to
Europe. Recent collaborative research by scholars in Ireland and Japan
demonstrates instead that the Japanese-sponsored ‗Buddhist Propagation Society‘
(BPS) launched in London in 1889 and led for three years by the Irish-born Japanese
Buddhist Charles Pfoundes predates both of the above-mentioned ‗first‘ Buddhist
missions. In this article we offer a first attempt to document the nature, activities and
significance of the London BPS, drawing on Japanese and UK sources to examine
Pfoundes‘ role and that of his Japanese sponsors. We discuss the nature of
Pfoundes‘ Buddhism, the strategy and activities of the London BPS and the reasons
for its eventual demise. The conclusion examines the links between the BPS and the
later ‗first‘ Japanese Buddhist missions in California and asks what hidden
connection there might be between Pfoundes‘ missionary campaign in London in
1889-92 and Ananda Metteyya‘s return from Burma as the ‗first‘ Buddhist missionary
to London, almost two decades later.