Wat Pah Nanachat

About

Wat Pah Nanachat, 'International Forest Monastery', lies in the forests of northeast Thailand, roughly fifteen kilometres outside Ubon Ratchathani. The monastery was established in 1975 by the renowned forest master Ajahn Chah as a training ground for monastics from outside Thailand, conducted within the disciplines of the Thai Forest Tradition.

Resident monks, novices, and postulants gather here from many nations, and the working language of the community is English. The first abbot was Ajahn Sumedho, an American bhikkhu trained under Ajahn Chah at Wat Nong Pah Pong, the motherhouse from which Wat Pah Nanachat descends. From this small forest seed an international family of branch monasteries has taken root under the collective name of the Forest Sangha.

Daily life follows the rhythms set by Ajahn Chah's lineage: a 3am rising, predawn chanting and meditation in the main sala, the alms round at sunrise, a single morning meal, work practice, Dhamma reflections, and evening communal practice. Both anapanasati and the cultivation of samatha and vipassana as inseparable aspects of practice are honoured, while strict observance of the Vinaya remains the defining feature of monastic life.

Lay guests dress modestly in white, observe the eight precepts, and join the community in every part of the daily schedule.

History

Ajahn Chah founded the monastery in 1975 so that the growing number of Westerners drawn to his forest tradition could train without the barrier of the Thai language, appointing the American bhikkhu Ajahn Sumedho as its first abbot. Ajahn Sumedho left in 1977 to found branch monasteries in Britain, and a line of Western-trained abbots, Ajahn Pabhakaro, Ajahn Jagaro, Ajahn Pasanno, Ajahn Jayasaro and Ajahn Nyanadhammo, carried the community forward until Ajahn Kevali took on the role in 2007. From this single forest monastery the Ajahn Chah lineage has grown into the worldwide network known as the Forest Sangha.

Significance

The community rises at three in the morning for chanting and meditation before walking the alms round through the surrounding village at dawn, and the day's single meal is eaten together before eight o'clock. Strict observance of the Vinaya, the monastic code some twenty-five centuries old, is what the community holds as its defining feature, more than any particular teaching or technique. Guests who write ahead may stay and join the schedule entirely, living for a time inside the same rhythm of silence, work and practice that shapes every monk here.

Architecture

Thai forest-monastery vernacular: a wooden sala with a tiered gabled roof set among the trees of Isaan, built for a resident international monastic community rather than public devotional display