25 Facts About Anagarika Govinda

Anagarika Govinda's father was quite well to do and owned a cigar factory.

Anagarika Govinda's mother died when he was three years old.

Anagarika Govinda recovered at a sanatorium and then studied philosophy, psychology and archaeology at Freiburg University.

Anagarika Govinda did not finish his studies, but went to live in a German art colony on Capri in Italy, as a painter and poet.

Anagarika Govinda studied at the Universities of Naples and Cagliari and made archeological research journeys in North Africa.

Anagarika Govinda joined the Bund fur buddhistisches Leben.

Anagarika Govinda was instrumental in founding the International Buddhist Union in 1929, of which he made Nyanatiloka the president.

Lama Ngawang Kalzang taught meditation to Anagarika Govinda, who remained in contact with him until his death.

When he first met Lama Ngawang Kalzang, Anagarika Govinda spoke no Tibetan and his description of the initiation is vague.

Anagarika Govinda himself wrote in Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism that he understood 'initiates' to mean 'individuals who, in virtue of their own sensitiveness, respond to the subtle vibrations of symbols which are presented to them either by tradition or intuition.

Anagarika Govinda stayed on in India, teaching German and French at Rabindranath Tagore's Visva-Bharati University in Santinekan.

Anagarika Govinda lost interest in the IBU, which caused it to collapse.

In 1932 Anagarika Govinda briefly visited Tibet from Sikkim, and in 1933 from Ladakh.

The reception in Sri Lanka was poor and Anagarika Govinda, who had run out of funds, was quite disappointed.

On orders of Tomo Geshe Rimpoche Anagarika Govinda founded his order, The Buddhist Order Arya Maitreya Mandala, on 14.10.1933.

The German Hans-Ulrich Rieker, who was ordained in the Arya Maitreya Mandala Order in 1952, was ordered by Anagarika Govinda to set up a Western wing of the Order.

In 1960 Anagarika Govinda went to Europe as a representative of Tibetan Buddhism at an international religious conference in Venice.

On his journeys to the West Anagarika Govinda made friends with the Swiss philosopher Jean Gebser, the Zen and Taoist teacher Alan Watts, the pioneer of transcendental psychotherapy Roberto Assagioli and the author Luise Rinser.

For health reasons Anagarika Govinda finally settled in the San Francisco Bay area, where he and his wife were taken care of by Alan Watts and Suzuki Roshi's San Francisco Zen Centre.

Anagarika Govinda remained mentally agile despite suffering from several strokes from 1975 onwards.

Anagarika Govinda lay down on his right side and died laughing.

Anagarika Govinda's ashes were placed in the Nirvana-Stupa, which was erected in 1997 on the premises of Samten Choeling Monastery popularly known as Ghum Monastery in Darjeeling.

Anagarika Govinda wrote several books on a wide variety of Buddhist topics.

Anagarika Govinda's articles were published in many Buddhist journals such as the Maha Bodhi, and the German journal Der Kreis published by his Buddhist Order Arya Maitreya Mandala.

Anagarika Govinda considered The Inner Structure of the I Ching, the Book of Transformation as his most important book.