Luang Por Sumedho was born in Seattle, Washington in 1934. After serving four years in the US Navy as a medic, he completed a BA in Far Eastern Studies and a MA in South Asian Studies. In 1966, he went to Thailand to practice meditation at Wat Mahathat in Bangkok. Not long afterwards, he went forth as a novice monk in a remote part of the country, Nong Khai, before receiving full ordination in 1967.

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Born in England in 1956, Ven. Amaro Bhikkhu received his BSc. in Psychology and Physiology from the University of London. Spiritual searching led him to Thailand, where he went to Wat Pah Nanachat, a Forest Tradition monastery established for Western disciples of Thai meditation master Ajahn Chah, who ordained him as a bhikkhu in 1979. He returned to England and joined Ajahn Sumedho at the newly established Chithurst Monastery. He resided for many years at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery, making trips to California every year during the 1990s.

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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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Ajahn Nyanarato (Shigehito Nakao) was born in 1958, in Nara, Japan. His sincere interest in the meaning of the life began when he was being trained as a medical doctor in Kyoto University.

After graduation, he decided to go to India for spiritual pursuit, instead of becoming a doctor. He spent one year there, then moved on to Thailand, where he visited various monasteries, such as Wat Pak Nam, Wat Suan Mokkh, etc.

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Ajahn Sukhacitto

Bhikkhu Sukhacitto was born in Germany in 1963. He first came into contact with Buddhism in 1986 in Thailand by attending a meditation retreat, offered through Wat Suan Mokkh. He ordained there as a novice in 1989 and as a Bhikkhu in 1990. He moved to the West in 1993. Since then he has lived at various monasteries in the West, including Dhammapala Monastery in Switzerland for six years. He first visited Amaravati as a monk several times in the 1990s. He stayed at Amaravati for the 2007 and 2008 winter retreats and came to live at Amaravati in April 2009.

Ajahn Gandhasilo

Ajahn Gandhasilo was born in 1959 and raised in Hertfordshire. He first saw a Buddhist monk on Ilkley Moor in 1980 and his first encounter with the Theravada tradition was at Chithurst monastery in 1985. After spending two years as an anagarika Ajahn Gandhasilo received the bhikkhu ordination at Chithurst in 1990. He has witnessed the development of Amaravati monastery and the transformation from the old school buildings into the new Temple that exists today. Over the years Ajahn Gandhasilo has spent virtually all of his monastic life England and has had the good fortune to experience life in all four of the UK monasteries in our tradition.

Ajahn Jayanto

Ajahn Jayanto (Chris Bowen) was born in 1967 in Boston, Massachussetts, USA. In 1988 he left university in order to pursue something more meaningful, and within a year had found his way to Amaravati in order to join the monastic community. After eight years training, mostly in the monasteries at Chithurst and Harnham, he spent another eight years in Buddhist countries in Asia, mostly in Thailand. He returned to Britain in order to live at Amaravati in March, 2006.

Ajahn Dhammanando grew up in Carshalton, Surrey, a fairly typical suburb of South London. He attended Mitcham Grammar school and went on to study English and History at Keele University in Staffordshire at a time when the curriculum there was broad and multi-disciplinary. He was aware of certain deep questions, barely articulated, on the inside, however he did not pursue a spiritual quest to find answers as the religions which he encountered in the UK appeared to him only marginally relevant. He was forced to the conclusion that other people must have similar questions but that everyone suppressed them.

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Ajahn Metta was born 1953 in Germany. She became an Anagārikā in ‘93 at Amaravati and took higher ordination as a Sīladhāra in ‘96. During her monastic life she has been involved in many areas of the community. She is one of the group of senior nuns leading the Sīladhārā community. For the past few years she has been teaching meditation workshops and retreats. Prior to monastic life she worked as a secretary and office assistant. She is a mother of a grown-up son and was living a family life before entering the monastic path. She has been practising meditation since ‘84 and has experience of living in other spiritual communities in Europe and Thailand (Wat Suan Mokkh).

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Ajahn Anando

Ajahn Anando was born in Blackheath, south east London on the 6th March 1966. He served as a soldier in the British army for 3 years mostly living in West Germany. After leaving the military he spent time studying health and fitness at East London University, then established a small fitness company which he ran successfully for several years.

His interest in meditation began in 1992 and increased to the stage where ordination as an anagārika became an obvious step. After several years in training he took higher ordination as a Bhikkhu, with LP Sumedho as preceptor, before the Vassa retreat of 1997. Spending his first 2 years as a Bhikkhu at Amaravati he then moved on to Thailand living for a year at Wat Pah Nanachat, then a year at Tan Ajahn Anan’s Monastery near Rayong. This was followed by 4 years in Australia helping to establish a new forest monastery near Melbourne. Presently he is residing at Amaravati.

Ajahn Kalyano

Ajahn Kalyano was born in Hitchin in 1961. He has been a practicing Buddhist since he was 17. He began visiting Amaravati in the 1980’s. As a layman his path of practice and enquiry led him to work in hospitals for nearly twenty years specialising in neurological rehabilitation and learning disabilities as a Clinical Psychologist, Physiotherapist and T’ai chi teacher. He has a particular interest in exploring the relationship between body and mind. He took full ordination at Chithurst Monastery in 1995 and has since travelled to Italy, Thailand and Australia.

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.

Joanna Swiecka (Niccala)

Joanna was born in 1973 and brought up in the North East of Poland. She came to England at 19 propelled by a strong desire to leave Poland, travel and study English. In her early twenties, she married (and divorced!) studied law, was called to the Bar of England and Wales, worked with refugees in a legal setting and explored other human rights issues. The death of a loved one put her on a path of enquiry which lead her to a meditation class with the FWBO in London in 2002 and to a retreat at Amaravati a year later.
She felt an immediate heart connection to the teaching. She joined the Retreat Centre as office manager in May 2009.

Sister Brahmavara

Sister Brahmavara (Susan Pritchard) was born 6 August 1964 in Reading, England. She studied medicine at Sheffield University, trained as a doctor in Auckland, New Zealand and worked as a GP in Shropshire. She started meditating while she was a medical student under the guidance of SN Goenka and spent a few years in India at Goenka centres, studying Pali, sitting and serving on retreats. She came to live at Amaravati in October 2000 as a retreat centre manager but soon after arriving requested anagārika ordination. She ordained as a sīladhāra in October 2004.

Bhikkhu Ahimsako

Born near San Francisco, California in 1959, Ven. Ahimsako spent most of his life living abroad and pursuing a career in classical ballet as a dancer, teacher, and educator. While living in England he traveled to Sri Lanka where his interest in Buddhism prompted him to begin visiting the London Buddhist Vihara and Amaravati Buddhist Monastery. He began his monastic life in 2002 at Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery (in northern California) with co-abbots Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro. Ven. Ahimsako received the Upasampada (Bhikkhu ordination) in 2004 with Ajahn Pasanno as preceptor.

Bhikkhu Kancano was born on the 22nd of July, 1968 in Montijo, Portugal. He spent his early childhood in Germany, returning to his native country at age five to begin his education there. He served one year of compulsory military service in the Portuguese army and after completing his ‘A’ levels in 1987 he enrolled on a five year professional diploma, qualifying as a technician for the fashion industries. Shortly thereafter, he accepted an offer from a renowned multinational fashion company and worked with them for the next two years.

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Suvira (Nisakorn Wanaphong) was born in Nakhon Sawan, north of Bangkok in Thailand. After graduating from Sri Nakharinwirot University, Phitsanuloke Campus, she moved to Phuket and worked there for 5 years in her family business resort and in a bank.  Then she moved to Bangkok and worked in a computer company.

After she attended a 10 day meditation retreat course lead by Upasika Khun Runjuan Indrakamhaeng and others in 1992, her perception of life had totally changed and deep interest in Dhamma practice became established in her.

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Caroline Leinster

Caroline Leinster has lived at Amaravati since 2005 and is now the librarian. Born in London in 1954, she moved to Newcastle upon Tyne in 1977 to study sociology and social policy.  After a career with urban voluntary organisations and training in psychosynthesis psychotherapy she decided she needed the support and challenges of living as part of a spiritual community 24 hours a day.  She is finding Amaravati provides her with what she was looking for. Caroline discovered vipassana at Harnham Monastery near Newcastle in 1987;  she is a Trustee of the Magga Bhavaka Trust, who are the lay stewards for Harnham. 

Ven. Vinita was born in Embilipitiya, Sri Lanka in January of 1977. He received Samanera (novice) ordination in 1994 under the guidance of Venerable Piyananda Mahanayaka Thera, the abbot of the meditation Centre at Lellopitiya, Ratnapura, Sri Lanka.

In 1996 he had the opportunity to read the teachings of Ven. Ajahn Chah and Ajahn Sumedho, which inspired him to learn more about the Thai Forest Tradition lineages. Soon afterwards Ven. Vinita started to look for a monastic community that followed the Ajahn Chah tradition.

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Appamado Bhikkhu (Vasco) was born in Portugal in 1976. He studied both Marine Biology and Environmental Engineering at the University of Faro. Sometime later Venerable Appamado became interested in meditation and as a consequence Buddhism. He came across Amaravati Buddhist Monastery in a book written by a friend, Maria, where she describes her journeys and her time in the monastery.

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Joshua Pogge

Joshua was born in Northallerton, Yorkshire, and moved to Ireland in the early seventies. He worked in retail for 20 years. During this time Joshua explored different spiritual paths and became interested in Buddhism in 1999. He attended a 10 day workshop at Kagyu Samye Ling, then visited Amaravati for one week, then ten days, then a month. Eventually Joshua moved to Amaravati as a long term lay resident in 2003 and worked as a groundsman. He became part of the Retreat Centre staff in the winter of 2008.

Sister Tisārā (Miriam Dean) was born in England in 1967, growing up in Belgium. She encountered the Buddha’s teachings in 2002, notably through Bhante Bodhidhamma who was her meditation guide from 2003-2005. A heart wish to live as a monastic came about at this time, so in 2005 she left work and life in London to find a place of practice. Events brought her to the community of Siladhara in the UK, taking Anagarika precepts in Nov 2006, then Siladhara 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.

Bhikkhu Santamano

Ven. Santamano was born in Wallasey in 1980. He and his parents moved to India for a few years before returning to England in 1993. His initial interest in Buddhism came through reading the works of D T Suzuki and started going to meditation classes at the Buddhist Society in London. There he learned of Amaravati and started listening to Dhamma Talks on the Internet. Ven. Santamano began visiting Amaravati as a guest and coming to retreats. He took the anagarika precepts in December 2008 and received the pabbajja (novice ordination) on 27 July, 2010, with Luang Por Sumedho as preceptor. On 10 July, 2011 Ven. Santamano received the upasampada (full ordination) as a bhikkhu, with Ajahn Amaro as his preceptor.

Bhikkhu Thanavaro

Ven. Thanavaro was born in Budapest, Hungary, where he studied and practised Buddhism before coming to Amaravati for the first time in 2007. He took the anagarika precepts in July 2009 and received the pabbajja (novice ordination) on 27 July, 2010, with Luang Por Sumedho as preceptor. On 10 July, 2011 Ven. Thanavaro received the upasampada (full ordination) as a bhikkhu, with Ajahn Amaro as his preceptor.

Samanera Narindo was born to Chinese-Malaysian parents in the Netherlands in the winter of 1981. In addition to pursuing his studies, he helped with his parent’s restaurant business. In 2005 he completed his studies (LL.M. in Financial Law & M.Sc. in International Business Administration), and started working in international sales and marketing for a Dutch multinational. His interest in people of various cultures resulted in traveling to different countries. In 2004, during his study exchange in Singapore, he came across a well informed Buddhist who introduced him to Buddhism in connection with many different traditions, but especially with the Ajahn Chah lineage.

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Anagarika Stanislaus

Originally from Poland, Anagarika Stanislaus spent most of his life living in Germany. He spent an extended period of time living at Plum Village in France before coming to Amaravati for the first time in 2010. Anagarika Stanislaus was part of the lay support team for the Amaravati Winter Retreat in 2011. He had his anagarika ‘going forth’ on 31 March, 2011, on the final day of the Winter Retreat.

Anagarika Stuart

Anagarika Stuart joined the community during an anagarika ‘going forth’ ceremony held at Amaravati on 10 December, 2011. More information and photograph to follow at a later date.

Retreat Centre Staff

Click here to read about our Retreat Centre Staff.

Anagarika Chiara

Anagārikā Chiara (Bertotti) was born in Ireland to Italian parents and raised in Italy. She has always been committed to freedom, starting with freedom from injustice on Earth through her involvement in political theatre. Anagārikā Chiara has also been involved in enabling children to realise freedom through creativity in primary school education, where she was a teacher. In 1998 Anagārikā Chiara met Ajahn Thanavaro at Santacittarama monastery in Italy. Since then she began to realised the impermanence of everything, and that death can arrive at any moment. Her quest for freedom of the heart is why she entered monastic life, ordaining for one year as an anagārikā in 2006. In 2009 Anagārikā Chiara returned to Amaravati to resume monastic training.