Anagarika Dharmapala (1864-1933) was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka and received a Christian education through college. He was the translator for the first Theosophists, Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott. He learned Buddhism from them and became very devoted as an 8 precept semi-monastic. He visited Bodh Gaya, India in 1891 and saw the dilapidated condition of the Mahabodhi temple and cried. He set up the Maha Bodhi Society to preserve and restore the temple and grounds. Today it is renovated and beautiful and attracts pilgrims from around the globe. He ordained as a bhikkhu (monk) in 1933 and died shortly thereafter in Sarnath, India.