Wat Dhammasathit

Wat Dhammasathit stands in the hills of Mueang Rayong district, on Thailand’s south-east coast. It began in 1968, when a donor, Khun Nai Sombuun Ryangrit, gave land to the Supreme Patriarch for a small monastery near the coast. Ajahn Fuang Jotiko, a student of Ajahn Lee Dhammadharo, volunteered to stay until an abbot could be found. Local people were not keen on a strict meditation monastery and no one else came forward, so around 1971, shortly before the Supreme Patriarch’s death, he accepted the post himself. Wikipedia says he remained abbot until he died in 1986.

Thanissaro Bhikkhu, Ajahn Fuang’s American student, first saw it in April 1974. He describes three monks in three small huts, a lean-to for meals and land stripped by fire and covered in cogon grass. He practised there for a few months, went home, and returned in autumn 1976 to be ordained and train under Ajahn Fuang. Yearly fire lanes let a new forest grow back.

Construction of a chedi on the hilltop began in autumn 1979, built largely by volunteers, and finished in 1982. A large Buddha image was completed in May 1986, a few days before Ajahn Fuang’s death. Bangkok professionals, local villagers and other lay people joined weekend building work, and many became regular meditators.

That is the extent of what the published record shows. Thanissaro’s introduction to Awareness Itself, free online, remains the main English account of the place. No English visitor guidance from the monastery was found, so if you wish to visit, contact it first and do not assume it takes foreign guests.