BUDDHA BODHIVANA MONASTERY

Buddha Bodhivana Monastery

วัดพุทธโพธิิวัน เมืองวิคทอเรีย ประเทศออสเตรเลีย

Background

Buddha Bodhivana Monastery is a branch monastery of the late Phra Bodhinyana Thera (Venerable Ajahn Chah b.1918 d.1992), the well known and respected north-east Thai forest monk. Venerable Ajahn Kalyano (Phra Sophon Bhavanavithet) is the Abbot and founder of the monastery and has been a monk since 1985 when he received ordination and entered the community of monks at Venerable Ajahn Chah’s monastery, Wat Nong Pa Pong, Ubon, Thailand. After Venerable Ajahn Chah’s death in 1992, Venerable Ajahn Kalyano moved to Wat Map Chan where he lived and practised for another ten years under the guidance of Venerable Ajahn Anan, a senior disciple of Venerable Ajahn Chah.

Buddha Bodhivana Monastery originated when a group of Melbourne Buddhists came together to form an organisation known as the Victoria Sangha Association with the aim to purchase a suitable property for a forest monastery where Buddhist monks could live and train. After many years spent searching for an appropriate site, the members found a forested property of 75 acres situated on the edge of the Yarra Ranges National Park, 80km east of central Melbourne and purchased it on Tuesday 5 December 2000. The title deed of the land was subsequently offered to Venerable Luang Por Liem (Phra Thep Vajiranyana), the current head of Ajahn Chah’s community of monks. Venerable Ajahn Kalyano travelled to Melbourne in April 2001 with the Sangha’s blessing.

In February 2002, the local Shire of Yarra Ranges council members granted planning approval for the Victoria Sangha Association to construct a monastery on the donated property. The planning process included defining a forest monastery as ‘a residence for monks’ in Australian planning law. The decision allowed for individual kutis or meditation huts to be built in the forest as dwelling places for the monks, enabling them to uphold the tradition of forest practice inherited from Thailand.

On 11 June 2002 the Victoria Sangha Association purchased an adjoining property of 125 acres at 780 Woods Point Road which provided some established infrastructure including several buildings, power, running water, a car park and an access road. Subsequently an adjoining property of 250 acres of forested land was purchased by the Association in 2018. The monastery is now 450 acres in size.

Uposatha Hall

As time passed, the Thai Ambassador Khun Bandhit Sothipalailit in discussion with supporters of the monastery suggested that the monastery needed an Uposatha Hall to provide a suitable place for ordinations and other ceremonies for the growing community of monks. Under the guidance of Venerable Ajahn Kalyano, plans were drawn up for a new hall to be constructed and these were submitted to the local council.

The hall was designed to be 36 metres in length and 21 metres wide, with porches at each end and a three metre wide covered walkway all around. On Sunday 30 April 2006 Venerable Luang Por Liem presided over a ground breaking ceremony and laid the foundation stone for the new hall. The major construction works for the hall were finished on Friday 27 April 2007 and senior monks from the Ajahn Chah lineage and wider monastic Sangha were invited to the opening of the new hall and establishing the Sima boundary in 2009.

Other Facilities

Currently the monastery facilities also include 18 kutis, a Dining Hall, kitchen, Bhikkhu Vihara (facilities building), laymen’s accommodation building, public toilets, workshop and storage sheds, and car park. Construction has begun on a laywomen’s accommodation building.

The resident Sangha for the Vassa of 2020 includes 8 Bhikkhus and 2 Samaneras, with additional lay visitors. Ajahn Kalyano and the resident monks provide daily teaching on Buddhist philosophy and meditation at the monastery and regularly conduct meditation retreats and workshops in the monastery and in other parts of the world. The monks also provide outreach services such as counselling the sick and teaching Buddhism to school groups.