Our Teachers

Luang Por Sumedho 

(Ajahn Sumedho)

(Thai: อาจารย์สุเมโธ) (born Robert Kan Jackman, July 27, 1934, Seattle) is one of the most senior Western representatives of the Thai forest tradition of Theravada Buddhism. He was abbot of Amaravati Buddhist Monastery, UK, from its consecration in 1984 until his retirement in 2010. Luang Por means Venerable Father (หลวงพ่อ), an honorific and term of affection in keeping with Thai custom;ajahn means teacher. A bhikkhu since 1967, Sumedho is considered a seminal figure in the transmission of the Buddha's teachings to the West. From 1967-77 at Wat Nong Pah Pong, he trained under Ajahn Chah. He has come to be regarded as the latter's most influential Western disciple. In 1975 he helped to establish and became the first abbot of the International Forest Monastery, Wat Pa Nanachat in northeast Thailand founded by Ajahn Chah for training his non-Thai students. In 1977, Ajahn Sumedho accompanied Ajahn Chah on a visit to England. After observing a keen interest in Buddhism among Westerners, Ajahn Chah encouraged Ajahn Sumedho to remain in England for the purpose of establishing a branch monastery in the UK.

Ajahn Tiradhammo

Luang Por Tiradhammo  is one of the most senior monks in the tradition of Ajahn Chah. He became interested in Dhamma in his student years while travelling through Sri Lanka.  Coming to Thailand and meditating at Wat Umong, he took ordination at Wat Meung Man in Chiang Mai with Venerable Tong in 1974. In 1975 he moved to study with Ajahn Cha at Wat Pa Pong and Wat Pa Nanachat. He went on several tudong journeys through the northeast of Thailand and the mountains of Chiang Mai, visiting many famous forest meditation masters. Venerable Tiradhammo was invited to England in 1982 to help with developments there. He spent two years at Chithurst Monastery and three years in charge of Harnham Vihara in Northumberland. In 1988, Ajahn helped establish Dhammapala Monastery near Bern, Switzerland and also later at its new location in the Bernese Alpine village of Kandersteg where he was the senior monk until 2005. In July 2005 he assumed the position  of senior monk at Bodhinyanarama, Wellington, NZ where he remained as abbot for six and a half years.  Ajahn is currently of no fixed abode and travels widely to teach the Dhamma and to hold meditation retreats. His visits to many monasteries and other locations can be followed on his blog. http://tiradhammo.blogspot.com.au/.  Ajahn’s last visit to Singapore was in January 2019 where he held a 2-day non residential meditation retreat at Wat Palelai on the 26th and 27th of January 2019.

Ajahn Viradhammo

Luang Por Viradhammo was born in Esslingen, Germany in 1947 to Latvian refugee parents. They moved to Toronto when he was four years old. He studied engineering at the University of Toronto but became disillusioned with academic life and left in 1969 to see the world and experience other cultures. Later, while living in India, he encountered Buddhism, meeting the late Samanera Bodhesako, who introduced him to the teachings of the Buddha. He eventually traveled to Thailand to become a novice at Wat Mahathat in 1973 and took bhikkhu ordination the following year at Wat Pah Pong with Ven. Ajahn Chah. He was one of the first residents at Wat Pah Nanachat, the international monastery in north-east Thailand. Having spent four years in Thailand, he went back to Canada to visit his family in 1977. Instead of returning to Thailand, he was asked by Ajahn Chah to join Ajahn Sumedho at the Hampstead Vihara in London. Later, he was involved in the establishment of both the Chithurst and Harnham monasteries in the UK. In 1985, invited by the Wellington Theravada Buddhist Association, he moved to New Zealand, accompanied by Venerable Thanavaro, where he lived for 10 years, setting up Bodhinyanarama monastery. In 1995 he came to the UK to assist Ajahn Sumedho at Amaravati and stayed for four years before returning to New Zealand, where he lived until 2002. In 2006 he founded Tisarana Buddhist Monastery in Perth, Ontario, where he is currently the abbot. Ajahn last visited Singapore in December 2016 where he conducted a non residential retreat on the 25th and 26th of December 2016 at KMSPKS.

Ajahn Sucitto 

Ajahn Sucitto (born 4 November 1949) was ordained in March 1976. Before entering monastic life, Ajahn Sucitto graduated from the University of Warwick England with a degree in English and American Literature in 1971. He spent a few years following the lifestyle of the alternative culture of the time, before heading overland to India in 1974 on a spiritual quest. This eventually landed him in Thailand in 1975 where he was introduced to the Thai Forest Tradition. Ajahn returned to Britain in 1978 and took up training under Ajahn Sumedho at the Hampstead Buddhist Vihara. In 1979 he was one of the small group of monks, led by Ajahn Sumedho, who established Cittaviveka, Chithurst Buddhist Monastery, in West Sussex. In 1981 he was sent up to Northumberland to set up a small monastery in Harnham, which subsequently became Aruna Ratanagiri. In 1984 he accompanied Ajahn Sumedho in establishing Amaravati Buddhist Monastery in Hertfordshire.  Between 1992 and 2014, Ajahn was the abbot of Cittaviveka, Chithurst Buddhist Monastery. On October 26, 2014, Ajahn resigned the post but continues teaching as before.  Ajahn Sucitto's main work has been in teaching, editing and writing, although he was also largely responsible for the creation of the protocols and standards that flesh out the ten-precept training of the sīladharā (nuns) Order.   Ajahn Sucitto conducted an International retreat from the 22nd to the 31st of December 2017 at Khao Yai Thailand and last visited Singapore in March 2018.

Ajahn Amaro 

Ajahn Amaro (born 1956) is abbot of the Amaravati Buddhist Monastery at the eastern end of the Chiltern Hills in south east England. The centre, in practice as much for ordinary people as for monastics.  Ajahn was educated at Sutton Valence School and Bedford College, University of London.  He is a second cousin of I.B. Horner (1896-1981), late President of the Pali Text Society. Apart from a certain interest in the theories of Rudolf Steiner—to which he had been introduced by Trevor Ravenscroft, Amaro's principal enthusiasms on leaving university were, by his own admission, pretty much those standard-issue among sceptical students of the day. Having completed his honours degree in psychology and physiology, in 1977 he went to Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand on an undefined "open-ended" spiritual search. He somehow found himself in northeast Thailand, at the forest monastery of Wat Pah Nanachat. Ajahn Chah's charismatic impact and the encouragement of the senior American monk Ajahn Pabhakaro were decisive. It changed his life. Having become a lay renunciate, four months later he became a novice and in 1979 he received upasampada from Ajahn Chah and took profession as a Theravadin bhikkhu. He stayed in Thailand for two years. Amaro then went back to England to help Ajahn Sumedho establish Chithurst Monastery in West Sussex. With the blessing of his abbot, in 1983 he moved to Harnham Vihara in Northumberland. He made the entire 830-mile journey on foot, chronicled in his 1984 volume Tudong: The Long Road North. Ajahn was in Singapore in December 2017 and conducted a 2 days non residential meditation retreat at Palelai Buddhist Temple on the 9th and 10th of December 2017.

Ajahn Nyanadhammo

Ajahn Nyanadhammo was born in Adelaide in 1955. He became inspired by the Buddha's message while a biology student, and in 1978 stayed at Wat Buddhadhamma near Sydney before travelling to Thailand to ordain. He received his novice ordination from Somdet Phra Nyanasamvara, and in 1979 received full ordination with Ajahn Chah. He then spent many years wandering in the jungles, staying in secluded monasteries and seeking out great teachers. From 1994 to 2002 he stayed at Bodhinyana Buddhist Monastery as deputy to Ajahn Brahmavamso. From 2002 he was the abbot of Wat Pa Nanachat in Thailand and since 2007 he has been the abbot of Wat Pa Ratanawan in Thailand, a forest monastery at the foot of Kow Yai National Park.

Ajahn Jayasaro

Ajahn Jayasaro (Shaun Michael Chiverton) was born on the Isle of Wight, England in 1958.  He joined Ajahn Sumedho’s community for the Rains Retreat as an anagarika in 1978 and in November he left for Wat Pa Pong in Northeast Thailand where he ordained as a novice in the following year. In 1978 he became a disciple of Ajahn Chah and took full ordination, with Ajahn Chah as his preceptor, in 1980. After his initial five year monastic training Ajahn Jayasaro went on extended solitary retreat before taking on teaching and administrative duties.  Over the next several years he alternated between periods of retreat and service to his monastic lineage.  During this time he was entrusted by the elders of his order with writing the official biography of his teacher, Ajahn Chah.  In 1997 he assumed the position of abbot of Wat Pa Nanachat, the international monastery of Ajahn Chah’s lineage, where he remained until the end of 2002. Since early 2003 Ajahn Jayasaro has been living in a hermitage at the foot of Khao Yai Mountain National Park. The Dhamma teachings and meditation retreats he gives at regular intervals at a nearby retreat centre offer inspiration to both lay Buddhists and monastics.  He is also a key figure in the movement to integrate Buddhist developmental principles into the Thai education system.  Many of his Dhamma talks are broadcast on radio and television. Ajahn Jayasaro has written many books on Buddhist themes in the Thai language, a number of which have been translated into other languages, including Chinese, French, Italian and Portuguese. His English work, ‘without and within’ is a general introduction to the Theravada Buddhist tradition. In 2011 Ajahn Jayasaro was granted an honorary doctorate in Buddhist pedagogy by Mahachulalongkorn Rajavidyalaya University. Ajahn’s latest work is “Stillness running”  about the life and teachings of Ajahn Chah. BDF is currently assisting in the translation of this book into Mandarin.  Ajahn last visit to Singapore was in November 2017.

Ajahn Jayanto

Ajahn Jayanto was born in Boston in 1967. During his university years a period of world travel kindled a great interest in the spiritual life. He attended the University of Winconsin at Madison  and a meditation class at the Cambridge Insight Meditation Centre led him to live for a while at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre  Massachusetts, where he made plans to join the monastic community of Ajahn Sumedho.  In 1989 he joined the monastic community of Ajahn Chah and Ajahn Sumedho at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery in England. Taking bhikkhu ordination at the related Cittaviveka Monastery in 1991, he trained there and at Aruna Ratanagiri Monastery until 1997, at which point he embarked on a period of practice in Thailand and other Asian Buddhist countries. Returning to the UK in 2006 he served in the community at Amaravati until moving to New Hampshire in 2014. Since 2009 Ajahn Jayanto has helped guide long-standing local efforts to establish a branch monastery of the Ajahn Chah community in New England, and he now serves as abbot of Temple Forest Monastery, in the small town of Temple, New England. Ajahn was in Singapore in January 2017.

Ajahn Cagino

Ajahn Cagino was born in Malaysia. He worked as a photographer and won no less than 40 awards with a first prize in the Asian Photography Competition. In 1997, he became a samanera under Mahayana tradition in Ang Hock Si Monastery in Penang，one and half year later became a novice under Ajahn Ganha in Thailand. He was re- ordained under Ajahn Chah’s lineage in Wat Pah Nanachat. Ajahn had practiced in solitude and had covered more than 4000 km on foot around Thailand and was residing in caves in northern Thailand.  In 2010, Ajahn founded Dhammagiri Foundation to help the orphans at Mae Hong Son by building a Buddhist children’s home for orphans. With the assistance of devotees, the Foundation continued to provide scholarships for the children’s needs ensuring that they have the basic foundation in education. Ajahn also conducted meditation retreat for schools as he believed that dhamma learning can start at a young age. Ajahn is the Spiritual Advisor of Nibbana Dhamma Rakkha Singapore. Since 2011, Ajahn had been travelling around Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia for dhammaduta and to conduct meditate retreats for lay practitioners. Devotees had organized more than 10 photography exhibitions for Ajahn, his work mainly reflect the way of life of Buddhist forest monks. Ajahn hopes that his pictures continues to inspire faith in the practice of the noble 8 fold path.

Venerable Aggacitta Bhikkhu

Venerable Aggacitta Bhikkhu is a Malaysian Theravada Buddhist monk who received his higher ordination at Mahasi Meditation Centre, Rangoon, Burma, in 1979. He was trained under various teachers, notably Sayadaw U Pandita (Panditarama), Sayadaw U Tissara (Yankin Forest Monastry), and Sayadaw U Acinna (Pa Auk Forest Monastery).  Besides practising meditation, he studied advanced Pali and translation in Thai and Burmese under Sayadaw U Dhammananda at Wat Tamaoh, Lampang, Thailand, from 1983 to 1984. He continued to study the Pali Tipitaka and researched on its interpretation and practice in Myanmar until his return to Malaysia at the end of 1994.  In 2000, he founded Sasanarakkha Buddhist Sanctuary (SBS), a Theravada monk training center nestled among secluded valleys and brooks near Taiping, Perak, Malaysia. Venerable held a one day retreat “Mindfulness in Daily Life” on 27 May 2017 in Singapore at Khong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery.

Venerable Khai Zhao

Venerable Khai Zhao was born in Ipoh, Perak. In 1987. He took ordination with most Ven. Book Kian at Penang Ang Hock Si Temple. After graduation from Malaysia Buddhist College in Penang in 1990 , he received his full ordination in the Theravada tradition in Thailand. He received meditation trainings from Thera Ji Cheng, Thera Xiu Jing, Thera Javana, Thera Thongbai, and Pa-Auk Tawya Sayadaw. In 1999,  Venerable founded and was the Abbot of two monasteries in Malaysia, Kajang and Kuantan.

During his monastic life of over two decades, Venerable has been a frequent visitor and meditation instructor in prisons in Malaysia and, recently, the United States as well. He offers counseling and teaches meditation techniques to inmates, among whom many are on death row. Since 2007, Venerable has travelled around the world, leading meditation retreats, giving dharma talks, and conducting dhamma programs and holding meditation retreats. Currently, he is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Elders at Santavana Forest Hermitage, Sabah, Malaysia. Venerable is a prolific writer of articles on dhamma for reflection. His superb command of Mandarin conveys the dhamma bites in classical poetic prose which inspires practice.