Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery

Abhayagiri is a Theravadin Buddhist monastery of the Thai Forest Tradition in Redwood Valley, California. Its chief priorities are the teaching of Buddhist ethics, together with traditional concentration and insight meditation (also known as the Noble Eightfold Path), as an effective way of completely uprooting suffering and discontent. Abhayagiri means 'fearless mountain' in the Pali language.

About 16 miles (26 km) north of Ukiah, the monastery has its origins in the 1980s when the UK-based Ajahn Sumedho, foremost western disciple of the Thai meditation master Ajahn Chah, started getting requests to teach in California. Visits by Ajahn Sumedho, as well as other senior monks and nuns, resulted in the Sanghapala Foundation being set up in 1988. The monastery's first 120 acres (0.49 km2) were given to the foundation by the devotees of Chan Master Hsuan Hua, founder of the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas in Talmage, before he died in 1995. Currently, the monastery rests on 280 acres (1.1 km2) of mountainous forest land. Six months after the monastery was settled by Ajahn Amaro, Ajahn Pasanno arrived to join him as co-abbot. They served together in this role until July, 2010, when Ajahn Amaro departed to take up the invitation to serve as abbot of Amaravati Buddhist Monastery in England. Ajahn Pasanno was the sole abbot of Abhayagiri between July, 2010 and July, 2018. Abhayagiri Monastery developed significantly under Ajahn Pasanno's and Ajahn Amaro's leadership and guidance, along with the support of the monastic and lay community, and more specifically, the Abhayagiri Building Committee. Over 25 kutis, monastic huts, were built in the mountainous monastery forest during their time as co-abbots as well as when Ajahn Pasanno was the lone abbot. In addition, during the early years, the co-abbots converted both current and new buildings into a Dhamma Hall, kitchen, office spaces, a room for disabled visitors, a laundry room and bathrooms/showers for lay women and men, along with monastery infrastructure and extensive creation of forest paths and roads. The co-abbots also contributed to the building of the Bhikkhu Commons, more affectionately known to the residents as the MUB: Monks' Utility Building, a 1600 square foot complex located in the upper forest of the monastery. The MUB offers monks access to bathrooms, showers, a multipurpose meeting room, a large sewing room, a laundry room, a small kitchenette and a large storage room below. The MUB was dedicated and officially opened on July 4, 2010. After Ajahn Amaro's departure to England in July, 2010 building a new Reception Hall was the next major undertaking of Ajahn Pasanno and the Abhayagiri Community. This took more than three years of planning and 4 years of building and would be a two-story complex with over 3000 square feet of covered outdoor decks and 6000 square feet of internal space. The internal space included a spacious meditation hall, a larger, commercial style kitchen, a library, a food storage room, guest rooms, a child care room, multiple bathrooms, showers for laymen, a laundry room, a small shrine room/reliquary, and a large storage room. Major landscaping was also accomplished. The Reception Hall building broke ground in July, 2013 and ended all construction on June 30, 2018 with the cloister area inauguration. Also in 2010, Ajahn Pasanno supported the establishment of the Pacific Hermitage, a branch of Abhayagiri Monastery, founded in the Columbia River Gorge along a forested stretch in White Salmon, Washington. Through Ajahn Pasanno's encouragement, Ajahn Sudanto lead the effort to establish the Pacific Hermitage. Three years after its founding, the hermitage was offered a purchased property on the outskirts of White Salmon where it is presently located. Three mo

Monastery data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).