In 1977 Ajahn Chah visited London on the invitation of a Buddhist organization (English Sangha Trust), which had been trying with varying success since the 1950s, to establish a permanent residence for Buddhist monks in England. At the time, Ajahn Chah was accompanied by his senior Western disciple Ajahn Sumedho and at the end of their visit he entrusted Ajahn Sumedho with the daunting task of starting a small monastic residence in the centre of London. However with the proviso to return to Thailand, should this experiment fail. The initial uncertainty and insecurity within the hearts of the first four monks soon turned into confidence, when they noticed that they could count on the support and interest of the people of London.
Because an appartment house in the middle of a huge city seemed inappropriate in the long run, for forest monks as well as for their visitors and guests, they gladly accepted the offer of a piece of forest by a random jogger, who happened to bump into the monks on one of their daily London almsrounds on Hampstead Heath. Soon after this auspicious encounter, an almost derelict house was found not far away from the forest, and so already in 1979 conditions seemed right to move into the countryside (West Sussex). In the same year the first forest monastery on British soil (and in the whole of Europe) came into being: Chithurst Forest Monastery, also called Wat Pah Cittaviveka.
After five years the new monastery already seemed too small for the increasing number of monastics, even though another property nearby had been acquired soon after the opening of Chithurst, for a nuns community and for female guests. After two small Viharas (monastic residences) had been opened in Northumberland and Devon in the early eighties, the vision of a larger monastery and Buddhist centre started to take shape. In the summer of 1984 a small Sangha of monks and nuns moved into an ex-boarding school in Hertfordshire, which was named Amaravati and which officially opened in May 1985. Over the years Amaravati developed into a permanent residence for a large number of monks and nuns, as well as a retreat centre and a vibrant meeting place for people from all over the world.
Roughly around the same time the first tentative ideas emerged of establishing a monastery in Switzerland in the not so distant future. Since the late seventies there had already been lively contact between the Forest-Sangha in England and the then Swiss Dhamma Group in Bern. Ajahn Sumedho and other senior monks had been invited almost every year to offer a series of retreats in the Swiss mountains. These were received with much appreciation and provided the idea of establishing a permanent monastic residence in Switzerland to allow for further momentum.
Arrival in Europe
Arrival in Switzerland
It took until 1987, when Ajahn Amaro (since 2010 the abbot and leader of Amaravati Monastery) paid an informal visit to Switzerland. During his stay there were regular meditation and discussion meetings in a Bernese flat, excursions into the mountains, and visits to already existing spiritual communities in Switzerland. Out of these informal and easy-going Bernese days arose the key impulse, to take on the Swiss monastery project. One of the female supporters took a substantial sum from her bank account to acquire a Burmese Buddha image and offered it as a sign of departure.
In 1988 the Canadian monk Ajahn Thiradhammo was asked to take up the position of the first senior monk of a Swiss forest monastery. The first monastic community – consisting of two monks (Ajahn Thiradhammo and Ajahn Chandapalo) and one postulant – initially moved into two floors of a solid three-storey building in central Konolfingen near Bern. With the help of a few friends the monks immediately started to renovate the premises, constructed a meditation room in the attic and started to live within a monastic rhythm and lifestyle.
But it soon turned out that the urban environment – just like before in London – wasn’t ideal for the monastic community nor for its visitors. After two years in Konolfingen attention was drawn to a property in an alpine valley with an altitude of 1200m, called Kandersteg, which seemed much more suitable as a monastic residence and place of retreat.
The house had been built in 1906 and had a very varied history. Originally it had been used as a hotel, but towards the end of the second world war it was also used by allied soldiers. After a huge avalanche destroyed one of the original two buildings in 1968, the remaining house was sold to a Christian organization for multi-purpose use.
After some initial legal complications the house ‘Am Waldrand’ (edge of the forest) was finally acquired in 1991 by the supporting Trust of the monastery (Verein Dhammapala). In the spring of 1992 the official opening ceremony was celebrated with many honoured guests inside a large marquee in the monastery garden.
The monastery Dhammapala
During the following years a lot of renovation and construction work was needed inside and around the monastery building, as is usually the case with monastic projects in the Western world. To start with a meditation room on the top floor was created, followed by a library, the construction of an avalanche dam, extensive drainage works in the monastery cellar and around the building, the continued renewal of windows and outside doors, the installation of new toilets and bathrooms, as well as the ongoing renovation of guest and monks’ rooms. In addition a substantial debt had to be repaid, as the purchase of the monastery was only possible with the aid of a mortgage. Finally by 2008 all the debts had been repaid. The sense of no longer carrying any more mortgage burdens led to the release of material and immaterial energies, which were from then on focused on the external appearance of the monastery.
Since the summer of 2010 a beautiful Buddha image (Abhaya Buddha) has been the main focus inside the monastery grounds, adjacent to the redesigned rock garden. Since about the same time visitors are welcomed at the monastery entrance by an original Thai style monastery sign and a delicate wood carving, depicting the turning of the wheel of Dhamma (Dhammacakka).
In 2013 the whole entrance area, servery and kitchen + new cooker got a thorough facelift and in 2016 the monastery roof was completely replaced.
Since the opening of the monastery in 1991 the resident Sangha has gone through numerous changes. A considerable number of monks have passed through Dhammapala during this time, on either a short- or long term-basis. Some have left monastic life entirely and others have moved on to either familiar or new monastic domains.
The first abbot in the monastery was the Canadian monk Ajahn Thiradhammo, who occupied this position from 1988 to 2005. After his departure from Switzerland, Ajahn Thiradhammo served another seven years as the abbot of a monastery in New Zealand after which he has been living as an emeritus Elder in Wat Buddhadhamma in New South Wales/Australia.
From 2005 until 2018 the German monk Ajahn Khemasiri took over the leadership role at Dhammapala. After his resignation from the abbot post in 2018 he spent an interim period of approximately two years in various monasteries in Europe and North America, from where he then returned to Dhammapala. Like his predecessor in Australia, he spends his time presently as an emeritus Elder within the Swiss monastery.
In 2018 Ajahn Abhinando became the successor of Ajahn Khemasiri in the role as the abbot of the monastery. Besides his duties as the main administrator and initiator of renovation projects – in 2019 the main reception room on the ground floor received a completely new face; in 2020 a new heating system was installed, no longer based on oil but on wood pellets from local producers; and in 2024/25 the old wooden staircase was removed and replaced by a fire proof one, including a chair lift for people with mobility problems – he fulfills many teaching obligations inside and outside the monastery.
Despite the many changes in personnel over the years and based on an ongoing offering of meditation courses, public talks, private dialogues and visits to various Buddhist groups plus a general open-door policy, Dhammapala has established itself as a place, which has over time become a genuine refuge and spiritual home for many people within Switzerland and beyond.