Luang Pu Fan Ajaro

Luang Pu Fan Ajaro (also spelled Fun) came from Phanna Nikhom district in Sakon Nakhon Province; Thai Wikipedia names his village as Ban Muang Khai. It says he first thought of a career in government, then saw the impermanence of rank and chose the monastic life instead. He was ordained as a novice and then as a monk, and on 21 May 1925 joined the Dhammayut order.

Ajahn Maha Bua’s biography of Ajahn Mun says Ajahn Fan first met Ajahn Mun in 1920, when Ajahn Mun came to stay near his home village. Ajahn Mun’s clear teaching inspired him to take up the wandering dhutanga life, and in 1926 he followed Ajahn Mun to Ubon Ratchathani, where he helped to establish several forest monasteries. After many years of wandering he settled in his home district. Ajahn Maha Bua writes of him that the most prominent of his qualities was an immense loving kindness for people of all classes.

He built Wat Pa Udom Somphon in Phanna Nikhom and the mountain monastery Wat Tham Kham nearby; Ajahn Thate, who later stayed there, describes how the villagers helped him extend the track up the mountain. From 1965 he spent every rains retreat at Wat Pa Udom Somphon, and he died there on 4 January 1977. A chedi museum built at the site of his cremation holds a life-size statue of him, his requisites and his ashes. King Bhumibol, Queen Sirikit and Princess Sirindhorn, who had attended his cremation in January 1978, came back to open it in 1982, according to Matichon. Thai Wikipedia lists among his students Amphon Ambaro, later Supreme Patriarch of Thailand, and Ajahn Suwat Suvaco.

Thai Wikipedia quotes a teaching of his: everyone must one day fight the great battle with death, each alone, and the only weapon is mindfulness (sati), which is built only through meditation. Little of his teaching is published in English. Ajahn Maha Bua’s biography of Ajahn Mun, free from Wat Pa Baan Taad, is the best English source on the monks around Ajahn Mun.