Lay Residents
Many lay people provide their support to the monastery. Every individual helps in different ways. Some come for a day and some for longer periods, staying with us to give support in certain areas of the monastery. These laypeople are part of the Amaravati resident community.
Suvīrā
Amaravati Office
Suvīrā was born in Nakhon Sawan, Thailand. After graduating from Sri Nakharinwirot University, Phitsanuloke Campus, she moved to Phuket and worked there for five years in her family's resort business and at a bank. Then she moved to Bangkok and worked in a Tech Company.
She became a volunteer at Sathira-Dhammasathan (Mae Chee Sansanee’s Dhamma Centre) after attending a ten-day meditation retreat led by Upasika Khun Runjuan Indrakamhaeng and others in 1992. She was also a volunteer at the Maya Gotami Foundation founded by Ajahn Mitsuo Gavesako.
Suvīrā resigned her job at Telecom Asia in 2001, and has been volunteering at Amaravati since then.
Caroline Leinster
English Sangha Trust
Caroline moved to Amaravati in 2004, after spending most of her adult life in Newcastle. Her interest in Dhamma grew as a result of practicing at Harnham, Aruna Ratanagiri. She has a background in social policy, the development of voluntary organisations, and psychosynthesis psychotherapy. Caroline was the Amaravati Librarian (2005-2012), the English Sangha Trust Secretary (2012-2024), and is a Trustee/Director of the Trust. Caroline also works with Amaravati Developments, the Company set up to manage the transformation of Amaravati from mostly 1930’s wooden school buildings to environmentally-friendly monastic ones.
As she gets older, Caroline’s interest in the ecology of all dhammas, seen and unseen, increases.
Maria
Retreat Centre Kitchen Manager
Maria arrived at Amaravati in 2006 and became the monastery's kitchen manager. In 2013, she stepped down from that role and began managing the retreat centre's kitchen, which she has been doing ever since.
Juan
Librarian
Juan Serrano was born in Madrid in 1970. He trained as a lawyer though subsequently his life has taken him down different paths than the law courts.
He has been a practising meditator for the last 24 years in both the Mahayana and Theravada traditions and has had a growing involvement with Amaravati over the last 15 years. For the last 5 years he has been the Amaravati Librarian during which time he has overseen the implementation of new technologies into the Library.
Joshua
Groundsman
Jenna
Retreat Household Manager
Eleonora
Site Manager
Eleonora has been a lay resident in Amaravati since the end of 2016, formerly as a Retreat Centre Manager and then wearing quite a few hats since when she came back after a year away. She’s now applying her engineering and organisation skills as Site Manager, endeavouring to find her practice in practical things, and enjoying the mindful and cooperative work style of the Monastery.
