Somdet Phra Buddhaghosacariya (P. A. Payutto)

Prayudh Aryankura, later known as P. A. Payutto, was born in Si Prachan district, Suphan Buri province. His temple’s biography says he was ordained as a novice in 1951 and began Pali studies, then moved to Wat Phra Phiren in Bangkok, where he completed the highest level of Pali study while still a novice. After higher ordination he taught at Mahachulalongkorn Buddhist University and later lectured and held visiting posts in the United States, including at Swarthmore College and Harvard.

His monastic title has changed several times, and his books appear under several of them: Phra Rajavaramuni, Phra Debvedi, Phra Dhammapitaka, Phra Brahmagunabhorn and now Somdet Phra Buddhaghosacariya (his temple’s list also begins with Phra Srivisuddhimoli). DharmaBase uses the name his temple’s website uses. Since 1994 he has lived at Wat Nyanavesakavan in Nakhon Pathom as its abbot.

His best-known book is Buddhadhamma, a modern account of the central doctrines of the Pali Canon. The description of Grant A. Olson’s 1995 English translation (SUNY Press), as shown on Google Books, names its detailed treatment of causality, no-self and faith based on inquiry. A second translation by Robin Philip Moore, about 2,000 pages in the Open Buddhist University’s listing, is in its fourth edition (2021) from the Buddhadhamma Foundation and is free to download.

He has also written on education, law, science and sustainable development, and compiled dictionaries of Buddhist terms and numbered teachings. In 1994 he received the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education.

Most of his output is in Thai. Wat Nyanavesakavan’s website offers his books and recorded talks for reading and listening online.