Diaries and notebooks of Anagarika Dharmapala

As a prolific writer, editor and publisher, as well as an eloquent orator, both in his native tongue of Sinhala and in English, Anagarika Dharmapala produced a remarkable collection of writings in the form of pamphlets, diary entries, letters, newspaper articles and speeches. Many of these have been carefully preserved and are accessible to the public.

Anagarika Dharmapala maintained notebooks and diaries throughout his adult life and most of these have survived for over a century. The original handwritten diaries were gifted by the Maha Bodhi Society to the Department of National Archives of Sri Lanka while his notebooks are held at the Dharmapala Museum in Sarnath, India. The Anagarika Dharmapala Trust maintains a set of transcribed (some as soft copies) of the following diaries in its library at the Trust office in Colombo.

Diary Entry April/May 1889: On tour of Japan with Col H. S. Olcott

Diary Note 1889: On the Noble Eightfold Path

Diary Entry September 1913: On the British in Hong Kong

Diary Entry September/October 1913: On the death of Harischandra Valisinha

Diary Entry December 1913: On practicing the Dhamma

Diary Entry December 1931: On asking the Devas for protection
to complete the Mulaghandakuti Vihara