Ubon Ratchathani is one of the four major cities of Isan, also known as the "big four of Isan." The city is on the Mun River in the southeast of the Isan region of Thailand, and is located 615 km (382 mi) away from Bangkok. It is known as Ubon (อุบลฯ) for short. The name means "royal lotus city". Ubon is the administrative center of Ubon Ratchathani Province.
Ajahn Chah was a Thai Buddhist monk. He was an influential teacher of the Buddhadhamma and a founder of two major monasteries in the Thai Forest Tradition.
Phra VisuddhisamvaratheraAM, known as Ajahn Brahmavaṃso, or simply Ajahn Brahm, is a British-born Buddhist monk. Ordained in 1974, he trained in the Thai Forest Tradition of Theravada Buddhism under his teacher Ajahn Chah. Currently, Ajahn Brahm is the abbot of Bodhinyana Monastery in Serpentine, Western Australia, as well as an adviser or patron of various Buddhist organizations in Australia, Singapore, and the UK.
Abhayagiri is a Theravadin Buddhist monastery of the Thai Forest Tradition in Redwood Valley, California. Its chief priorities are the teaching of Buddhist ethics, together with traditional concentration and insight meditation, as an effective way of completely uprooting suffering and discontent. Abhayagiri means 'fearless mountain' in the Pali language.
The Kammaṭṭhāna Forest Tradition of Thailand, commonly known in the West as the Thai Forest Tradition, is a lineage of Theravada Buddhist monasticism.
Amaravati is a Theravada Buddhist monastery at the eastern end of the Chiltern Hills in South East England. Established in 1984 by Ajahn Sumedho as an extension of Chithurst Buddhist Monastery, the monastery has its roots in the Thai Forest Tradition. It takes inspiration from the teachings of the community's founder, the late Ajahn Chah. Its chief priorities are the training and support of a resident monastic community, and the facilitation for monastic and lay people alike of the practice of the Buddha's teachings.
Ajahn Sumedho is an American Buddhist monk. He was ordained in 1967, and was instrumental in establishing Wat Pa Nanachat in Thailand and the Cittaviveka and Amaravati monasteries in England. One of the most senior Western representatives of the Thai Forest Tradition of Theravāda Buddhism, Sumedho is considered a seminal figure in the transmission of the Buddha's teachings to the West.
Ajahn Candasiri is one of the Theravāda Buddhist monastics who co-founded Chithurst Buddhist Monastery in West Sussex, England, a branch monastery of the Ajahn Chah lineage. She is currently ordained as a ten-precept sīladhārā, the highest level that is allowed for women in the Thai Forest Tradition. She is one of the senior monastics in western Theravāda Buddhism and trained alongside women who later became fully ordained bhikkhunis and abbesses of monasteries.
The Sīladharā Order is a Theravada Buddhist female monastic order established by Ajahn Sumedho at Chithurst Buddhist Monastery, England. Its members are known as Sīladharās.
Cittaviveka, commonly known as Chithurst Buddhist Monastery, is an English Theravada Buddhist Monastery in the Thai Forest Tradition. It is situated in West Sussex, England in the hamlet of Chithurst between Midhurst and Petersfield. It was established in 1979 in accordance with the aims of the English Sangha Trust, a charity founded in 1956 to support the ordination and training of Buddhist monks (bhikkhus) in the West. The current abbot, since 2019, is Ajahn Ahimsako.
Wat Pah Nanachat is a Theravāda Buddhist monastery in northeast Thailand, about 15 kilometres from the city of Ubon Rachathani. It was established in 1975 by Ajahn Chah as a training community for non-Thais according to the norms of the Thai Forest Tradition. Resident monks, novices and postulants include a wide range of nationalities. The primary language of communication and instruction is English.
Dhammadharini Vihara is a Buddhist women's monastic residence (vihara) in the Sonoma Hills of Santa Rosa, California. The name "Dhammadharini" is interpreted as a "holder" or "upholder" of the Buddhadhamma as a "flowing" or "streaming" reality, teaching and practice. A "vihara" is a monastic residence, and place of Dhamma and meditation teaching and practice.
Birken Forest Buddhist Monastery, or Sītavana, is a Theravada Buddhist monastery in the Thai Forest Tradition near Kamloops, British Columbia. It serves as a training centre for monastics and also a retreat facility for laypeople. Its abbot is Venerable Ajahn Soṇa.
Venerable Bhikkhunī (Ayya) Tathālokā Mahātherī is an American-born Theravada Bhikkhunī, scholar and Buddhist teacher. She is also the co-founder of the Dhammadharini monastic community in California, which includes Dhammadharini Monastery, and Aranya Bodhi Hermitage. She was the recipient of the 2006 Outstanding Women in Buddhism Award, a presenting scholar at the 2007 International Congress on Buddhist Women's Role in the Sangha, and was appointed Preceptor for the historically-significant 2009 Bhikkhuni Ordination held in Perth, Australia.
A bhikkhunī or bhikṣuṇī is a Buddhist nun, fully ordained female in Buddhist monasticism. Bhikkhunīs live by the Vinaya, a set of either 311 Theravada, 348 Dharmaguptaka, or 364 Mulasarvastivada school rules. Until recently, the lineages of female monastics only remained in Mahayana Buddhism and thus were prevalent in countries such as China, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and Vietnam, while a few women have taken the full monastic vows in the Theravada and Vajrayana schools. The official lineage of Tibetan Buddhist bhikkhunīs recommenced on 23 June 2022 in Bhutan when 144 nuns, most of them Butanese, were fully ordained.
Ajahn Pasanno is the most senior Western disciple of Ven. Ajahn Chah in the United States, and most senior in the world after Ajahn Sumedho and Ajahn Khemadhammo. For many years he was the abbot of Wat Pah Nanachat International Forest Monastery in Northeast Thailand. In the late 1990s, Ajahn Pasanno moved to California to head the new Abhayagiri Monastery. With more than 40 years as a bhikkhu, Ajahn Pasanno has been instrumental in training many monks in Thailand and the United States and has been supportive of training for women.
The Forest Tradition of Ajahn Chah is a Mahanikai monastic organization in the Thai Forest Tradition composed of the students of Ajahn Chah Subhaddo. Strictly speaking, the Forest Tradition of Ajahn Chah denotes the institutions who have a branch affiliation with Wat Pah Pong, the administrative center of the organization.
The Kammatthana meditation tradition originally grew out of the Dhammayut reform movement, founded by Mongkut in the 1820s as an attempt to raise the bar for what was perceived as the "lax" Buddhist practice of the regional Buddhist traditions at the time. Mongkut's reforms were originally focused on scriptural study of the earliest extant Buddhist texts, revival of the dhutanga ascetic practices, and close adherence to the Buddhist Monastic Code. However, the Dhammayut began to have an increasing emphasis on meditation as the 19th century progressed. During this time, a newly ordained Mun Bhuridatto went to stay with Ajahn Sao Kantasīlo, who was then the abbot of a small meditation-oriented monastery on the outskirts of Ubon Ratchathani, a province in the predominantly Lao-speaking cultural region of Northeast Thailand known as Isan.
Sujato, known as Ajahn Sujato or Bhikkhu Sujato, is an Australian Buddhist monk ordained into the Thai forest lineage of Ajahn Chah.
Ayya Nirodha is an Australian Buddhist nun. Her story was featured in the Buddhist Life Stories of Australia Project (2014–2015).
