Venerable Ajahn Chah Subhaddo (Chao Khun Bodhinyana Thera) (Thai: ชา สุภัทโท, alternatively spelled Achaan Chah, occasionally with honorific titles Luang Por and Phra (17 June 1918 – 16 January 1992) was an influential teacher of the Buddhadharma and a founder of two major monasteries in the Thai Forest Tradition.

Respected and loved in his own country as a man of great wisdom, he was also instrumental in establishing Theravada Buddhism in the West. Beginning in 1979 with the founding of Cittaviveka (commonly known as Chithurst Buddhist Monastery) [1] in the United Kingdom, the Thai Forest Tradition of Ajahn Chah has spread throughout Europe, the United States and the British Commonwealth. The dhamma talks of Ajahn Chah were recorded, transcribed and translated into several languages.

Over one million people attended Ajahn Chah’s funeral in 1992, including the Thai royal family[2]. He left behind a legacy of dhamma talks, students, and monasteries.

Ajahn Chah was born on June 17, 1918 near Ubon Ratchathani in the Isan region of northeast Thailand. His family were subsistence farmers. As is traditional, Ajahn Chah entered the monastery at age nine as a novice, where he learned to read and write during his three year stay. He left the monastary to help his family on the farm, but later returned to monastic life on April 26,1939 seeking ordination as a Theravadan monk (or bhikku) [3]. According to the book Food for the Heart: The Collected Writings of Ajahn Chah, he chose to leave the monastic life in 1946 and became a wandering ascetic after the death of his father[4]. He walked across Thailand, taking teachings at various monasteries. Among his teachers at this time was Ajahn Mun, a renown meditation master in the Forest Tradition. Ajahn Chah lived in caves and forests while learning from the meditation monks of the Forest Tradition. A website devoted to Ajahn Chah eloquently describes this period of his life:

For the next seven years Ajahn Chah practiced in the style of an ascetic monk in the austere Forest Tradition, spending his time in forests, caves and cremation grounds, ideal places for developing meditation practice. He wandered through the countryside in quest of quiet and secluded places for developing meditation. He lived in tiger and cobra infested jungles, using reflections on death to penetrate to the true meaning of life. On one occasion he practiced in a cremation ground, to challenge and eventually overcome his fear of death. Then, as he sat cold and drenched in a rainstorm, he faced the utter desolation and loneliness of a homeless monk.