Luang Por Viriyang Sirintharo

Luang Por Viriyang Sirintharo was born Viriyang Boonteekul on 7 January 1920 in Saraburi, central Thailand, and grew up in Nakhon Ratchasima in the north-east. He was ordained as a novice in his teens and went walking in the forests as a student of Ajahn Kongma, a pupil of Ajahn Mun. He was fully ordained as a monk on 20 May 1941, according to the Willpower Institute, and spent years with Ajahn Mun, serving as his attendant. He belonged to the Dhammayut order.

In the early 1960s he took up residence on land on the outskirts of Bangkok. According to Thai Wikipedia, a lay couple gave the land for a temple, and Wat Dhammamongkol was built there in 1963. It grew into a large monastery and meditation teaching centre, and he was its abbot. He also set up temples and meditation centres in Canada.

His main teaching legacy is the Willpower Institute, which he founded on 24 July 1997 at Wat Dhammamongkol. The institute teaches meditation, which it calls Samma-Samadhi (“right meditation”), as a practical training open to people of any religion. Its English site lists courses from an introduction to a Meditation Instructor Course, and says the methods come from Ajahn Mun’s lineage. The Thai site, samathi101.com, and the English site both list current courses.

He was given the title Somdet Phra Nyanavajirodom. He died in Bangkok on 22 December 2020, aged 100.