The resident community at Amaravati officially ended its winter retreat 2024 on the morning of the 31st March, with a formal ‘Asking for Forgiveness’ ceremony with Ajahn Amaro.
As always, a special “anumodana” goes to the winter retreat support team. This team of lay volunteers runs the monastery from early January to the end of March, thus allowing the monastic community a period of increased quietude. If you are interested in joining the support team for future winter retreats, please contact the guestmonk or guestnun.

Upcoming events
NB: Luang Por Sumedho’s talk today, Monday 8 April, has been cancelled. Luang Por Sucitto will give a talk in the evening instead.
Songkran (South Asian New Year)
We will celebrate the traditional South Asian New Year – “Songkran” in Thailand – on the 14th of April at 1:30pm in the Temple. The event usually consists of a formal pouring of water onto a Buddha-image, as well as onto the Abbot’s hands. The monastic community will also chant parittas, and Ajahn Amaro will likely offer a short Dhamma reflection for the occasion.
Vesak
This year, we will combine Vesak with the auspicious celebration of Luang Por Sumedho’s 90th birthday. More information will be shared in due course, but we can already mention that this festival will be held on Sunday 19 May. Many esteemed senior monks will fly in from all around the world for the occasion, so we expect this to be a very large gathering. We will also observe Visākha Puja – with our usual outdoor circumambulation – on the evening of the actual full moon day, which according to our traditional calendar falls on Wednesday 22.
Regular routine
The routine of the monastery reverts to its ‘normal’ mode, and you are now welcome to book online if you wish to stay overnight at Amaravati.
Luang Por Sumedho is expected to carry on with his weekly offering of a Dhamma talk until the end of May, as he will be away from Amaravati for most of June. As usual, these Dhamma reflections take place on each moon day at 3pm in the Temple, and all are warmly invited to attend. Video recordings are posted afterwards on our YouTube channel.
The 2pm Saturday workshops, led by experienced lay practitioners during the winter, revert to being led by a senior monk or nun for the rest of the year.
As always, you are very welcome to visit during the day and make use of our Temple and library, and to partake of the daily meal offering at 11:30am.
HertsLynx
Those making their way to Amaravati via public transport might be interested to hear about HerstLynx, a new on-demand bus service. They offer rides to Amaravati for £2, which can be booked up to 30 days in advance. More information can be found on their website.
May all beings be at ease,
The resident community at Amaravati