Luang Por Sumedho (Ajahn 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 practise 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, and a year of solitary practice followed; he received full admission into the Sangha in 1967.

Although fruitful, the solitary practice showed him the need for a teacher who could more actively guide him. A fortuitous encounter with a visiting monk led him to Ubon province to practise with Venerable Ajahn Chah. He took dependence from Ajahn Chah and remained under his close guidance for ten years. In 1975, Luang Por Sumedho established Wat Pah Nanachat (International Forest Monastery) where Westerners could be trained in English.

In 1977, he accompanied Ajahn Chah to England and took up residence at the Hampstead Vihara with three other monks.

Luang Por Sumedho has inspired more than a hundred aspirants of many nationalities to go forth into the samaṇa life, and has established four monasteries in England, as well as branch monasteries overseas. In late 2010 he retired as abbot of Amaravati Buddhist Monastery in Hertfordshire and took residence in Thailand.

Luang Por returned to Amaravati in January 2021 and has been offering regular Dhamma talks on the moon days. Please note that due to his venerable age, Luang Por is generally not available to meet with visitors, but you are welcome to contact him via snail mail.

Born in England in 1956, Ven. Amaro Bhikkhu received a 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. Soon afterwards 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.

In June 1996 he established Abhayagiri Monastery in Redwood Valley, California, where he was co-Abbot with Ajahn Pasanno until 2010. He then returned to Amaravati to become Abbot of this large monastic community.

Ajahn Amaro has written a number of books, including an account of an 830-mile trek from Chithurst to Harnham Vihara called Tudong - the Long Road North, republished in the expanded book Silent Rain. His other publications include Small Boat, Great Mountain (2003), Rain on the Nile (2009) and The Island - An Anthology of the Buddha's Teachings on Nibbana (2009) co-written with Ajahn Pasanno, a guide to meditation called Finding the Missing Peace and other works dealing with various aspects of Buddhism.

In December 2015, along with Ajahn Pasanno, Ajahn Amaro was honoured by the King of Thailand with the ecclesiastical title ‘Chao Khun’. Together with this honour he was given the name ‘Videsabuddhiguna’. In July 2019, again with Ajahn Pasanno, he was honoured with the title ‘Chao Khun Rāja’ and received the name 'Rājabuddhivaraguṇa’

Ajahn Amaro is on sabbatical, and entirely incommunicado, until April 2026.

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

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

After another year of exploring in Thailand he came to Wat Pah Nanachat. Impressed by the serene presence of the Sangha there, he finally found a place to settle. In 1986 he was ordained as a sāmanera and he received upasampadā the following year.

Later, Ajahn Ñāṇarato started to live under the guidance of Ajahn Gavesako, a senior Japanese disciple of Luang Por Chah. In 1989, they walked together on pilgrimage from Tokyo International Airport to Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park (around 1,000 kilometres). This took 72 days and was supported by the words of Ajahn Gavesako, “every single step of ours is a peace march.”

When Ajahn Gavesako set up Wat Sunandavanaram in Kanchanaburi in 1990, Ajahn Nyanarato joined that community and lived there for ten years. He also worked for Maya Gotami Foundation, a charity for poor youth in Thailand established by Ajahn Gavesako.

In 2000, Ajahn Ñāṇarato went to Nepal, intending subsequently to spend a few years in Sri Lanka, but the political situation there at that time did not allow him to do so. As he was also interested in learning how to live in the Sangha in the West, he came to England instead and spent the Vassa at Chithurst. He moved to Amaravati in 2001. Deeply inspired by Luang Por Sumedho and his teaching, he has resided there ever since.

Ajahn Nyanadassano was born in Czechoslovakia in 1971 and was growing up with his Russian father in Latvia. He became a Buddhist when living in Prague in the late 1990’s and came to Amaravati in 1999 intending to become a monk. Ajahn Nyanadassano received the Full Acceptance as a Bhikkhu in 2002 and spent the following year at Chithurst Buddhist Monastery. He also trained as a junior monk in Wat Pah Nanachat in Thailand. After initial training of 5 years he practised in Buddhist monasteries and hermitages in Europe and Asia, returning to Amaravati for longer or shorter periods – until settling in again at the end of 2015.

Ajahn Nyanadassano has been involved a lot in building projects and maintenance and occasionally leads meditation retreats in Amaravati and abroad.

Ajahn Ñāṇadassano is currently at Paññagiri, Spain.

Ajahn Asoko grew up in a village near Geneva in Switzerland. His mother brought Buddhism into the family life. As a teenager, he visited Amaravati Monastery, where he first met Ajahn Sumedho and was fortuitously able to attend a ten day retreat with Ajahn Sucitto. At 19 years old, he decided to take a sabbatical year off and spend it at Wat Nanachat, Ajahn Chah's branch monastery for Westerners in Thailand, under the guidance of Ajahn Pasanno.

After 9 years back in lay life, it seemed time to return to Thailand, and was ordained as a bhikkhu by Luang Por Liem. He spent 18 years in Thailand, the last 8 years as Luang Por Sumedho's attendant and secretary. He came to stay at Amaravati Monastery in January 2021 as Luang Por Sumedho returned to live there.

Ajahn Jivako was born in Manchester, UK and later moved to the US at a young age. After finding an interest in Buddhism during his university years he set off traveling and visited numerous monasteries and meditation centers to learn more about the practice of Dhamma. Jivako took novice ordination at Wat Pah Pong in 2006 and then bhikkhu ordination the following year. After 6 years in the Wat Nanachat circle, he then stayed for a few years at Bodhivana in Melbourne before returning to North America for a few stays at Temple Forest monastery, Abhayagiri and Tisarana.

Ajahn Ruciro was born in Croydon, South London in 1978. He studied at university and achieved two degrees, one in Sports Science and the other in Physiotherapy. For eight years Venerable Ruciro worked for the National Health Service (NHS) as a physiotherapist, specializing in the field of neurology during the last three years. He first became interested in Buddhist meditation as a way of coping with ‘stress’ when he was twenty-five years old. He started visiting Wat Buddhapadipa in Wimbledon, London on a regular basis, and later began coming to Amaravati. He attended retreats in Thailand (Wat Suan Mokkh and Wat Umong), and also spent ten days at a monastery in Sri Lanka.Venerable Ruciro was extremely inspired by Luang Por Sumedho and his teachings, and similarly by Ajahn Amaro. This culminated in his decision to ‘go forth’ as an anagārika at a ceremony held at Amaravati on 25 August 2012. Ajahn Ruciro requested the sāmanera pabbajjā on 10 August 2013, at a ceremony held in the Amaravati Temple.

Bhikkhu Pasādo was born in Bletchley, England in 1970. His first contact with Buddhism happened through a number of inspiring events of good fortune and acts of kindness from people he met while travelling through India. It was at this time that the idea of becoming a Buddhist monk first arose in his mind.

Later Bhikkhu Pasādo encountered the Thai Forest Tradition through attending meditation classes at a Samatha Meditation Centre, while he was studying in Manchester. He was inspired by a book he received about the life of Ajahn Tate, who practised meditation in the seclusion of the forests of Thailand.

After completing his degree course, his interests in hydrogeology took him to Kent where he lived and worked for many years. Bhikkhu Pasādo started attending a local Buddhist group in Maidstone, Kent, which greatly helped to support and deepen his practice. It was during this time that Bhikkhu Pasādo first heard the teachings of Ajahn Chah and was inspired by his simple, direct style of teaching.

Bhikkhu Pasādo began attending meditation retreats at a number of centres around England including Amaravati Buddhist Monastery. His confidence grew in the Buddhist path and with it came a firm aspiration to enter into monastic training. Eventually, through good fortune, the right conditions came about for him to leave the household life and enter into homelessness, and his Anagārika Precept Ceremony was held on the full moon observance day on 2 May 2015. He received the Pabbajjā or novice 'going forth' in a ceremony held at Amaravati on 20 May 2016, and Full Acceptance into the Bhikkhu-Sangha on 2 July 2017, with Ajahn Amaro acting as preceptor.

Bhikkhu Pasādo would like to express his heartfelt gratitude for all of the kindness and wisdom he has received from those practising Dhamma across the world.

Bhikkhu Jayadhammo was born in Doncaster, England in 1979. He joined the community at Harnham Buddhist Monastery in 2013, where he stayed for three years, initially as a lay-resident and then going on to train as an Anagarika. He continued his training at Chithurst Buddhist Monastery, where he received Pabbajja as a Samanera ('Going Forth' as a novice monk), before joining the community at Amaravati in 2018.

Tan Adicco (Nicolas Kermarc) was born in Évry, France, but grew up in the south, near Montpellier. After several years in San Francisco in his early twenties, he stumbled upon a book by Ajahn Chah and decided to visit Abhayagiri, which sparked a desire to embark upon the monastic path. In the spring of 2017, he became an anagarika under Ajahn Dtun at Wat Boonyawad, Thailand. He subsequently came back to the West and trained for four years at Aruna Ratanagiri in the north of England. He was accepted into the bhikkhu sangha in September 2020 with Ajahn Amaro as preceptor, and formally joined the community at Amaravati in December 2021.

As a layman, Tan Cittasamvaro used to have recurring dreams about missing trains due to having so much baggage to lug about. He doesn't have those dreams anymore.

When he first read about the four noble truths a spark was ignited. He started by practising on his own. After a year or so he decided that it would be beneficial to find the support of a group, this led him to Hartridge Buddhist Monastery. He felt he could trust the monks as they were walking the walk. He felt very welcomed by the Abbot, Ajahn Jutindharo, and the rest of the community. After a period of participating in the Sunday evening pujas he stayed for a weekend. During this weekend, in addition to finding the community life very appealing, he attended a talk given by Ajahn Khemmanando. The Ajahn said something along the lines of "...if one gets the opportunity, then the most worthwhile way to live life is as a Bhikkhu......" Tan Cittasamvaro totally believed the sincerity of his utterance and for the first time he realised that he too could be a Bhikkhu once my personal circumstances were favourable. It took a while to get the ducks in a row.

Tan Cittasamvaro went forth as a novice in Hartridge with Ajahn Sucitto as preceptor and had his bhikkhu ordination on 27th December 2020 with Ajahn Amaro as preceptor. He very much enjoys living in a mixed community with his brothers and sisters in the holy life.

Tan Samāhito was born in 1993 and grew up in Le Blanc-Mesnil, France.

He studied and worked for a few years in advertising and web development in Paris before deciding to live the monastic life.

He became a Bhikkhu in Amaravati with Ajahn Amaro as preceptor on 29 December 2023.

Kāruñño Bhikkhu, born in southern Denmark, moved to Copenhagen in 1998 to study philosophy while also pursuing a career in music and audio engineering. In 2010, his life took a transformative turn upon discovering Buddhism through Mahāthera Nyanatiloka's “Word of the Buddha.” Trying to deepen his understanding of the Pāli Canon texts led him to attend a 10-day vipassanā meditation retreat in the tradition of S.N. Goenka in 2012. It was during this retreat that the idea of ordination first emerged.

In 2016, Venerable Kāruñño visited Amaravati Buddhist Monastery, where he met practicing bhikkhus, further solidifying his spiritual path. He formally took the eight precepts as an Anagārika in July 2022, marking his commitment to monastic life. After requesting his Sāmaṇera Pabbajja in July 2023, he received the Upasampadā, achieving full acceptance into the bhikkhu Sangha, with Ajahn Amaro as his preceptor, in July 2024.