Ajahn Sundara
Encyclopedia
Ajahn
Sundara is a French
-born ordained monastic in the Buddhist Thai Forest Tradition
of Ajahn Chah
.
She studied dance (contemporary dance) and worked as a dancer and dance teacher until her early thirties when she had the opportunity to meet Ajahn Sumedho in England and to attend one of his dhamma talks and then a retreat. She was one of the first four women ordained by Ajahn Sumedho in 1979 as an anagarika (eight precept novice) and in 1983 as a 10 precept nun.
After living at Chithurst Monastery in England, Ajahn Sundara moved in 1984 to Amaravati Buddhist Monastery and was instrumental in founding the nuns' community there. She went to Thailand in the mid-1990s, where she spent more than two years, primarily on retreat at forest monasteries. She has been teaching and leading retreats in Europe and North America for 20 years. She currently resides at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery.
Ajahn
Ajahn is a Thai language term which translates as teacher. It is derived from the Pali word , and is a term of respect, similar in meaning to the Japanese sensei, and is used as a title of address for high-school and university teachers, and for Buddhist monks who have passed ten vassa.This...
Sundara is a French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
-born ordained monastic in the Buddhist Thai Forest Tradition
Thai Forest Tradition
The Thai Forest Tradition is a tradition of Buddhist monasticism within Thai Theravada Buddhism. Practitioners inhabit remote wilderness and forest dwellings as spiritual practice training grounds. Maha Nikaya and Dhammayuttika Nikaya are the two major monastic orders in Thailand that have forest...
of Ajahn Chah
Ajahn Chah
Venerable Ajahn Chah Subhaddo was an influential teacher of the Buddhadhamma and a founder of two major monasteries in the Thai Forest Tradition....
.
She studied dance (contemporary dance) and worked as a dancer and dance teacher until her early thirties when she had the opportunity to meet Ajahn Sumedho in England and to attend one of his dhamma talks and then a retreat. She was one of the first four women ordained by Ajahn Sumedho in 1979 as an anagarika (eight precept novice) and in 1983 as a 10 precept nun.
After living at Chithurst Monastery in England, Ajahn Sundara moved in 1984 to Amaravati Buddhist Monastery and was instrumental in founding the nuns' community there. She went to Thailand in the mid-1990s, where she spent more than two years, primarily on retreat at forest monasteries. She has been teaching and leading retreats in Europe and North America for 20 years. She currently resides at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery.