Thai Forest Tradition
Bhikkhus
Dhammayuttika Nikāya Ajahn Sao Kantasīlo (1861–1941) Ajahn Mun Bhūridatta (1870–1949) Ajahn Waen Suciṇṇo (1887–1985) Ajahn Thate Desaransi (1902–1994) Ajahn Lee Dhammadharo (1907–1961) Ajahn Maha Bua (1913–2011) Ajahn Fuang Jotiko (1915–1986) Ajahn Suwat Suvaco (1919–2002) Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu (1949–) Mahā Nikāya Ajahn Buddhadasa (1906–1993) Ajahn Chah (1918–1992) Ajahn Sumedho (1934–) Ajahn Khemadhammo (1944–) Ajahn Viradhammo (1947–) Ajahn Pasanno (1949–) Ajahn Sucitto (1949–) Ajahn Amaro (1956–) Ajahn Jayasāro (1958–)
Sīladharās
Ajahn Sundara (1946–) Ajahn Candasiri (1947–) Complete List
Related Articles
History of the Thai Forest Tradition Forest Tradition of Ajahn Chah Buddhism in Thailand Buddhism in the West Kammaṭṭhāna Dhutanga History of Isan
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Ajahn Candasiri is one of theTheravāda Buddhist monastics who co-foundedChithurst Buddhist Monastery inWest Sussex, England, a branch monastery of theAjahn Chah lineage. She is currently ordained as a ten-preceptsīladharā, the highest level that is allowed for women in theThai Forest Tradition. She is one of the senior monastics in westernTheravāda Buddhism and trained alongside women who later became fully ordainedbhikkhunis and abbesses of monasteries.

Born in 1947, Ajahn Candasiri was raised as a Christian inEdinburgh, Scotland. She worked as anoccupational therapist in theUnited Kingdom after graduation from university. She encountered theBuddha's teachings in 1977 throughAjahn Sumedho, after exploring several meditation traditions. She became a renunciant in 1979, a white-robed,eight-preceptanagārikā, at Chithurst Buddhist Monastery.

Ajahn Candasiri was one of four anagārikā women who carved out an existence in the early days of Chithurst Buddhist Monastery, along with a group of monks. In 1979, the monastery was little more than an abandoned, dilapidated house. After the group turned it into a functional residence, the nuns moved to a small house nearby and fixed it up. They called it Āloka Cottage and eventually founded the sīladhārā ordination community there. In 1983, Candasiri took sīladharā ordination (brown robes and ten precepts). It consisted of a unique set of 137 rules and a new version of thePatimokkha recitation created by Ajahn Sumedho so that the women monastics could be trained in Ajahn Chah's lineage. Ajahn Candasiri was one of the pioneer sīladharā monastics who were trained bybhikkhus (fully ordained monks), in parts of theSuttavibhanga and a version of theVinayaPatimokkha.^[1] Some of the sīladharā sisters became skilledSangha members, capable of keeping the patimokkha, living in harmony and maintaining their community with very few resources.

Ajahn Candasiri and the other sīladharās remained at the Chithurst monastery despite the sīladharās being subordinated to monastic men.^[2] Though the sīladharā community grew over the years, some began leaving to seek full Vinaya training.^[3] Ajahn Candasiri had stayed in the sīladharā community which shrank to three nuns at one point. She is one of the sīladharās who have been allowed to teach and lead retreats. She lived at Chithurst until 1999 when she moved toAmaravati Buddhist Monastery, where she continues to teach.^[4]

She is one of the most senior monastics in the Amaravati Sangha. Since 2015, she has been increasingly resident in Scotland at Milntuim Hermitage in Perthshire. Initially on her own, supported by laywomen staying with her, there is now, in 2020, usually a junior female monastic from Amaravati resident with her, when she is there.

• The Secret of Happiness. Amaravati Publications (2021).ISBN 978-1-78432-184-0
• Simple Kindness. Amaravati Buddhist Monastery (2012).ISBN 978-1-870205-58-0.
• Friends on the Path. Amaravati Publications (2011).ISBN 978-1-870205-24-5.
• Rituals and Observances. Amaravati Publications (2001).ISBN 1-870205-15-4.

• 1947 births
• Living people
• Converts to Buddhism from Christianity
• Theravada Buddhist monks
• Thai Forest Tradition nuns
• Scottish Buddhist nuns
• Scottish Buddhists
• Scottish Theravada Buddhists
• 20th-century Buddhist nuns
• 21st-century Buddhist nuns

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata