Wat Pa Ban Nong Phue

Wat Pa Ban Nong Phue is a forest monastery in Na Nai subdistrict, Phanna Nikhom district, Sakon Nakhon Province. Its official name is Wat Pa Phuritat Thitrawat. It stands on the east side of the village of Ban Nong Phue. Ajahn Maha Bua describes the village as lying in a broad valley surrounded by forested mountains, and the monastery as set in dense forest, then rife with malaria.

Ajahn Mun lived here for five years. Ajahn Maha Bua’s biography says he was seventy-five and in failing health when he arrived, that this was the longest residence of his monastic life, and that monks could choose to stay in wooded lowlands, high mountains or caves nearby. When he fell gravely ill in March 1949, he insisted repeatedly on being taken to Sakon Nakhon, saying that was where he would die. He was carried out by stretcher, resting first at Ban Phu monastery, and died on 10 November 1949 at Wat Suddhawat (Wat Pa Sutthawat) in Sakon Nakhon.

Today the monastery keeps his hut, and his relics are enshrined in the large hall, according to the community tourism project that lists it. A large memorial chedi tells his story, with statues of sixty-three of his direct disciples around its veranda. The same project places Wat Pa Udom Somphon, the museum of Ajahn Fan Ajaro, about 38 km away on the same pilgrimage route.

For foreign visitors this is a place to pay respects and to see where the teacher lived, not a place to book a retreat. Read the biography first. It is free online and describes this valley in detail. His teachings are collected in A Heart Released, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.