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.

Ajahn Dhammanando grew up in Carshalton, Surrey, a fairly typical South London suburb. 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 internally of certain deep, barely articulated questions, but did not pursue a spiritual quest to find answers to them because to him the religions which he encountered in the UK appeared only marginally relevant. He was forced to the conclusion that other people must have similar questions but that everyone suppressed them. It was after graduation, on going to Thailand as a volunteer teacher for Voluntary Service Overseas that he found some initial signposts, although at that time he had almost no understanding of Buddhism. The Thai people lived in a different way and different values were in evidence; he found this inspiring.

The culture shock on his return to the UK was far worse than the initial shock in Thailand. He did his best to take up a career and do the conventional things, but that shock of return to the West only served to deepen his questionings. But when he first heard the Dhamma from Ajahn Sumedho at Hampstead in January 1982, having been invited to a ceremony there by a Thai student, he began to feel a resonance. A month later the Thai friend took him to visit Chithurst Monastery and at Easter that year he took part in a ten-day retreat during which both the teaching and the practice succeeded in unlocking doors and opening windows. For the first time ever, those deeper questions had begun to be addressed.

He continued his career as a lecturer in Industrial Language Training, but began to spend more time with the Sangha, usually going on brief retreats or giving lifts to monks. In 1984 he helped to establish a meditation group in Northampton, and he hosted those senior monks who came there to teach. In 1985 he took a year off work to spend time as an anagārika at Amaravati and Chithurst. This experiment finally extended to twenty months, and although he eventually returned to the lay life it was to a different job, teaching in a secondary school in Croydon.

During the next four and a half years he studied for an MA at Essex University, among other things. The realization gradually dawned that being ordained was what he really needed to do, and that his more worldly interests were of lesser importance. In 1991 he returned to Amaravati to re-ordain as an anagārika and was happy to spend two years in that role there and in two other monasteries.

In July 1993 he took upasampadā with Luang Por Sumedho at Chithurst and trained initially with Ajahn Sucitto as his acariya (instructor). Between 1997 and 2004 he went on to train in Switzerland, then Italy, followed by a return to Amaravati and then to Chithurst again, before going overseas to Australia and New Zealand. He spent time in different monasteries in Australia, before living for two years at Bodhinyanarama Monastery in Wellington.

He returned to the UK in May 2007 to be nearer his parents, and, since then, has been resident at Amaravati, but he has also made occasional trips abroad to teach in France, Slovenia and Hungary. He currently makes regular teaching visits to a local prison and assists in receiving school groups at the monastery. He often offers basic instruction in meditation at Amaravati on Saturday afternoons.

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.

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 'going forth') on 27 July, 2010, with Luang Por Sumedho as preceptor. On 10 July, 2011 Ven. Santamano received the upasampadā, or full admission into the bhikkhu sangha, with Ajahn Amaro as his preceptor.

Bhikkhu 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 parents' restaurant business. In 2005 he completed his studies at the Rotterdam school of Management, and started working in international sales and marketing for a Dutch multinational.

His interest in people of various cultures led him to travel to different countries. In 2004, during a study exchange in Singapore, he came across a well-informed Buddhist who introduced him to many different traditions of Buddhism, but especially the Ajahn Chah lineage. To his amazement, the Buddhist teaching revealed itself as something he had partly incorporated in his life, without knowing it was “Buddhist.” The emphasis in the Buddhist teachings on personal morality and on sharing goodness in body, speech and mind was very inspiring. His strong aspirations resulted in serious commitment to the Three Refuges and Five Precepts.

From 2004 he spent his holidays mostly in Asia (Thailand, Burma, Tibet, Malaysia, Singapore) to visit Buddhist places with his Dhamma friends. After some years he felt a need for more guidance in his meditation practice, and looked for meditation classes connected with the Ajahn Chah lineage. In 2009 he found the Amaravati Retreat Centre on the internet, and in June of that year during a ten-day retreat; he surprised himself: there was a sudden urge to renounce his lay-life. In the winter of 2010 he arrived at Amaravati and found the monastery supportive for the practice. Venerable Narindo was ordained as a bhikkhu on 29 July, 2012, with Ajahn Amaro as preceptor.

The Anagārika Precept Ceremony for Venerable Balado was held at Amaravati on 2 May 2015 with Ajahn Amaro as his preceptor.

Before joining the monastic life, Dīghadassī (Jeroen Akershoek) was living and working in the Netherlands as a System Developer and Administrator. He had a good job, but felt uncomfortable about being part of an economic society that is based on greed and competition, while the negative impact this has on people and the environment is so obvious. It seemed to him that living this way had no meaningful purpose, but he could not see an alternative. Subsequently, he became interested in meditation but eventually grew weary because it only seemed to offer temporary relief from the stress of modern society. It did not give him the answers he was looking for.

In 2013 he came in contact with the Buddha's Teachings through a 10 day Goenka Vipassana course, which had a big impact on him. It gave him the confidence and trust that there actually is a complete teaching for living a wholesome and purposeful life. One year later, after reading the book 'The Buddha and his Teachings' by Ven. Narada, he seriously started thinking about entering the monastic life. He discovered the Thai Forest Tradition and was drawn by Ajahn Chah's simple and direct teachings. He started living at Amaravati in 2016. His upasampadā or full acceptance into the Bhikkhu Sangha was in December of 2018.

Venerable 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.