Ajahn Sundara was born in France in 1946. She studied dance in England and in France. In her early thirties, after working for a few years as a dancer and teacher of contemporary dance, she had the opportunity whilst living and studying in England to attend a talk and later, a retreat led by Ajahn Sumedho.

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Ajahn Candasiri was born in Scotland in 1947 and was brought up as a Christian. After university, she trained and worked as an occupational therapist, mainly in the field of mental illness. In 1977, an interest in meditation led her to meet Ajahn Sumedho, shortly after his arrival from Thailand. Inspired by his teachings and example, she began her monastic training at Chithurst as one of the first four Anagārikā.

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Sister Bodhipala was born in South-East Asia in 1940, married, has three children and five grandchildren.  She was ordained as Anagārikā in 1998 and as Sīladhārā  in 1999.  Venerable Ajahn Sumedho was her Preceptor.

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Sister Cittapala

Born in Germany in 1949, she worked for nearly 20 years as a teacher and artist in Hamburg. In 1990/91 she went to Indonesia to study awareness movement (Amerta Movement - The River of Life) with Suprapto Suryodharmo - a practice which connected her more and more with Buddhism. After meeting Luang Por Sumedho in 1994, she felt so supported by his teachings that she came to Amaravati, where she has been living since 1996. In 1999, she asked for Sīladhāra ordination.

Here she is supporting the community and is involved in family activties, especially exploring ways of practice and teaching which use formal meditation as well as painting and movement - for liberation.

I was born in 1973 in Leicester, England but spent most of my childhood either in the north of England or in the Western Isles off the north west coast of Scotland.

From quite early I was interested in spiritual life and first visited Amaravati when I was 15.  During that visit I read some of the teachings of Ajahn Chah. 

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Sister Chandasara

Sister Chandasara (Louise Stack) was born in 1954 in Johannesburg, South Africa, and grew up in a Christian family. She was involved in revolutionary politics in exile in her twenties and later worked as a political researcher and analyst at the Centre for Policy Studies in Johannesburg for 14 years before coming to Amaravati in 2002, and ordaining as a siladhara in 2006. She has a BA (Hons) in African Politics and an MA in Linguistics (Semantics). Her lifelong quest has been, and continues to be, liberation and learning how to love unconditionally.

Sister Tisārā (Miriam Dean) was born in England in 1967, then grew up in Belgium, spending 14 years of her life at the European School of Brussels. Following a degree in Biological Science, she worked in the scientific publishing industry. In 2005 she left work and life in London to find a place of practice. Events conspired to bring her to the community of Siladhara in the UK, taking Anagarikā precepts in November 2006, then Siladharā Pabbaja in March 2010.

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Sister Manita

Sister Manita was born in Spain in 1959, to a quite poor family. She did not have any religious background and her formal education finished after primary school. During her teenager years she worked in a factory in Spain and in 1979 Sister Manita moved to France where she went on to succeed in business and raise a child.

Suffering led her to an interest in spirituality, investigating Taoism, Zen, Dogen and Ryokan. In 2005 she came to Amaravati and in 2006 became an Anagārikā. Over the years Sister Manita has discovered the profundity of the Lord Buddha’s Teachings. She ordained as a Sīladhāra in March, 2010, with Luang Por Sumedho as her teacher and preceptor.

Anagarika Shirley

Shirley’s interest in meditation began in 1997. She set off traveling overseas in 1998 and did her first ten-day meditation retreat in Thailand during that time. On returning, she made contact with Amaravati. She felt attracted to monasticism with a focus on supporting her meditation practice. As a frequent visitor of the monastery, Shirley often attended the Saturday afternoon meditation workshops and offered regular help in the Amaravati library. She came to stay for ten weeks during 2003 in order to explore her interest in ordination. From that time onwards, she attended a number of retreats and also offered support for retreats working in the Retreat Centre kitchen. She took a resident position as office manager at the Amaravati Retreat Centre in 2007, where she continued to work until preparing for anagarika ordination in August of 2009.

Anagarika Chiara

Chiara Bertotti: Born in Ireland, from italian blood.
Always in search of Freedom. Starting with Freedom from injustice on the earth, trough political
theater. Then giving Freedom to childrens creativity, trough primary school education.

In 1998 i met Aj Thanavaro in Santacittarama and, realising that everything is anicca and that death can be here any moment.
Freedom of the Heart.
That’s why i am here.