Ajahn Khemadhammo

Venerable Ajahn Khemadhammo (Chao Khun Bhavanavitayt) (alternatively Achaan Khemadhammo, occasionally with honorific titles Luang Por and Phra) 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 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 the Ajahn 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'd been visiting monthly for some years, he moved to Banner Hill near Kenilworth and the Buddha-Dhamma Fellowship was formed. In 1985 he moved to his current residence, The Forest Hermitage, a property in Warwickshire that was most generously made available and in 1987, with considerable help from devotees in Thailand, it was purchased by the Buddha-Dhamma Fellowship. A stupa was built there in 1988, known as the 'English Shwe Dagon'. Presently he lives with several other bhikkhus, continuing to visit prisons and teaching meditation.

Luangpor Khemadhammo began his Buddhist prison chaplaincy work in 1977 and in 1985, with the help of others, Angulimala, the Buddhist Prison Chaplaincy was launched with him as its Spiritual Director.

Venerable 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 King of Thailand's birthday, he was made a Chao Khun with the ecclesiastical title of Phra Bhavanavitayt, only the second foreign born monk to receive such an honour.

(Adapted from The Forest Hermitage web site)

External Links

• The Forest Hermitage

See Also

• Venerable Ajahn Chah
• Venerable Ajahn Mun
• Venerable Ajahn Tate
• Venerable Ajahn Lee
• Venerable Ajahn Sao