BangkokPost-July 21
The Buddhist community is celebrating a landmark moment after a British-born monk was elevated to the kingdom’s highest echelon of the monastic hierarchy, becoming the first foreign national to be appointed a Somdet Phra Ratchakhana. On July 12, the Royal Gazette published a royal command announcing the promotion of eight senior monks from the Phra Ratchakhana Brahma class to the rank of Somdet Phra Ratchakhana. Among them was Phra
Brahmapatcharayanamunee, better known as Ajahn Jayasaro (Shaun Michael Chiverton), the resident monk at Ban Rai Thaw Si Monastic Residence in Nakhon Ratchasima. Under the royal command, he was bestowed the title Somdet Phra Mahapatcharayanamunee, making him the first foreign-born monk in Thailand’s history to receive the supreme monastic rank conferred through a royal Suphanabat appointment. Born Shaun Michael Chiverton on Jan 7, 1958, on the Isle of Wight in England, Ajahn Jayasaro’s path to Buddhism began long before he arrived in Thailand. As a child, he suffered from severe asthma, forcing him to miss school frequently. The illness gave him time to pursue independent study, where he excelled academically. During his teenage years, he began questioning the meaning of life and found answers in Buddhist philosophy, which he regarded as the truth he had long been seeking. Determined to deepen his understanding, he began practicing meditation on his own and worked from the age of 17 to save enough money to travel to Thailand. His spiritual journey officially started in 1978 after practicing meditation with the esteemed Ajahn Sumedho in England. He later travelled to Thailand and became a disciple of the late Luang Por Chah Subhaddo, one of the country’s most revered meditation masters, at Wat Nong Pah Pong in Ubon Ratchathani.
He ordained as a novice monk in 1979 and, on June 3, 1980, entered full monkhood with Luang Por Chah serving as his preceptor. He received the Pali name Jayasaro, meaning “one who is victorious through the dhamma”. Ajahn Jayasaro devoted himself to mastering both Thai and Buddhist scriptures. He became fluent in Thai while also studying Pali and Sanskrit, believing that all serious students of Buddhism should take up the classical languages underlying the Buddhist canon. After completing his first five years in the monkhood, he undertook years of solitary forest wandering in the traditional dhutanga ascetic practice, which helps practitioners cultivate their minds and bodies as well as shake off defilements, before returning to teach and spread the Buddha’s teachings. Read more at:
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