Vichak Panich

Vichak Panich (วิจักขณ์ พานิช) is a Thai teacher who leads Vajrasiddha, a Buddhist community in Bangkok rooted in the lineage of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and the Kagyu-Nyingma tradition as it took shape in the West. Vajrasiddha began in 2009 as a meeting space called Tilopa House, became a centre in 2017, and since 2019 has been a project of the Vajrapañña Foundation, which also runs Avalokita, a drop-in meditation room in central Bangkok, and is building a retreat centre, Padmakara, on Koh Phangan.

His own path began in Thai Theravada practice. As a young man he meditated in the line of Khun Mae Siri Krinchai, and after university he spent a year as a monk at Suan Mokkh, learning meditation from Phra Ajahn Singthong Khemiyo, who had been Buddhadasa Bhikkhu’s attendant. He went on to study at Naropa University, and found his teacher in Reginald Ray, a student of Trungpa. Vajrasiddha’s training follows Ray’s approach: the three-yana path, taught through the somatic meditation Ray developed.

On 23 September 2026, at the close of a five-day retreat in Thailand on Dudjom Lingpa’s Troma Chöd practice, Anam Thubten formally appointed him a lineage holder of the Dudjom Tersar, authorising him to teach it. A 2026 journal article on Vajrayana in Thailand singles out the community he leads for joining contemplative practice with awareness of social suffering and injustice in Thai society.