Ajahn Khemadhammo
From Buddhist Encyclopedia
Luangpor Khemadhammo
Venerable Ajahn Khemadhammo (alternatively Chao Khun Bhavanavitayt or Achaan Khemadhammo, occasionally with honorific titles Luang Por and Phra) is a teacher of Theravada Buddhism. He was born in England in 1944. After training and practising as a professional actor for some years, in 1971 he travelled to Thailand via the Buddhist holy places in India. In December 1971 in Bangkok, he became a novice monk and about a month later moved to Ubon to stay with Ajahn Chah at Wat Nong Pah Pong. On the day before Vesakha Puja of that year, 1972, he received upasampada as a bhikkhu.
In 1977, Venerable Khemadhammo returned to the U.K. and, after staying in London and Birmingham, set up a small monastery on the Isle of Wight. In 1984, at the invitation of a group of Buddhist meditators that he had been visiting monthly for some years, he moved to Banner Hill near Kenilworth and formed the Buddha-Dhamma Fellowship. In 1985, he moved to his current residence, the Forest Hermitage, a property in Warwickshire; in 1987, with considerable help from devotees in Thailand, this land was purchased by the Buddha-Dhamma Fellowship. A stupa was built there in 1988, known as the 'English Shwe Dagon'.
Ajahn Khemadhammo began Buddhist prison chaplaincy work in 1977. In 1985, with the help of others, Angulimala, the Buddhist Prison Chaplaincy was launched with him as its Spiritual Director.
Presently, Ajahn Khemadhammo lives with another monk, continuing to visit prisons and teaching meditation.
Ajahn Khemadhammo was appointed an OBE (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in the Queen's Birthday Honours, June 2003 for 'services to prisoners'. In December 2004, on the birthday of the King of Thailand, he was made a Chao Khun with the ecclesiastical title of Phra Bhavanavitayt; he was only the second foreign-born monk to receive such an honour.
External links
This article uses text adapted from the Forest Hermitage's biography of Ajahn Khemmadhammo. It is available for free distribution under the terms of the GFDL.
