Amaravati Origins

Over the years heating and cooking systems have undergone changes - from the original (inefficient) oil-fired installation to (cumbersome) wood-burners to the current gas system. The kitchen itself has also undergone any number of physical and personnel transformations and, other than the basic structure, the only thing unchanged in the picture above is the small shrine on the window. Kitchen work, like all work, is undertaken as a spiritual practice; supported by devotion, mindfulness and the ability to co-operate.

things in the making
Anagarikas at work in the kitchen. Fourteen years later Ajahn Upekkha (left) is now the senior nun at Amaravati.

Kitchens are commonly experienced as 'hot' places but a variety of experiments with procedure - such as 'kitchen pujas' - has made the kitchen a place of considerable joy.

Much of this joy arises through the fact that all food arrives as an expression of the continuous flow of generosity that has supported Amaravati from the start. There are no charges for staying as a guest, and even retreats are run on a cover-costs basis.

awaiting change
The standing Buddha, donated by the Supreme Patriarch of Thailand,
looks over a winter scene surveying the two buildings and courtyard that
eventually gave way to the new Temple and cloister.

While there were, and will always be, elements of physical work in the monastery, the spiritual work of the Sangha continued. Ajahn Sumedho gave regular teachings and the numbers interested in taking up the monastic life continued to grow. This resulted in other monasteries being established: in Switzerland, Italy, New Zealand and, more recently, California.