BC / ADBCE / CE

1880 CE

Olcott and Buddhist networks in Sri Lanka

Religion · Buddhist traditions · Theravada and colonialism

Henry Steel Olcott and Helena Blavatsky arrive in Sri Lanka in 1880 and meet monastic and lay leaders. That year the Colombo branch of the Theosophical Society, known as the Buddhist Theosophical Society, is founded. BPS’s commemorative history documents this episode of organization under colonial rule.

Precision, calendar, and review
Start
year · no uncertainty qualifier in this record
Dating in the source document
1880
Calendar and convention
Historical-era years; the source calendar is not identified. No conversion of days is assumed.
Year zero
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Documentary review
2026-09-04

Reading the date: point event.

Sources

  1. Buddhist Publication Society — Colonel Olcott: His Service to Buddhism, p. 40 (opens in a new tab)
    Source provenance and scope
    Publication date
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    Bibliographic date checked
    2026-09-23

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