Welcome to Chaiya Meditation Monastery

Venerable Chaiya, formally known as U Zeyathuta, was born on Tuesday, March 25, 1947 in the devoted Buddhist family of U Myat and Daw Moon.    He is the second son of five children.    He originally came from Si Paw Township, Shan State in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

In late 1990, Venerable Chaiya accepted an invitation by the Venerable Panyavaro, a Chief Monk of Wat Buddhabhavana in Las Vegas, Nevada, to travel to the United States for Buddhist missionary work.   After Venerable Panyavaro passed away in 1992, Venerable Chaiya served as an Abbot of Wat Buddhabhavana at the request of the Thai community.   Venerable Chaiya accepted and taught meditation, Buddhist Philosophy, and Buddhism at Wat Buddhabhavana from 1993 to 1995.

In 1995, Venerable Chaiya discontinued serving as an Abbot of Wat Buddhabhavana so that he could undertake an intensive silent meditation retreat.   However, members of the Las Vegas Buddhist community requested that Venerable Chaiya stay in Las Vegas and provided him a place for his silent meditation retreats.    After 7 months straight of intensive silent meditation, members of the Las Vegas Buddhist community requested Venerable Chaiya to teach Dharma classes.    With the help of his disciples around the world, Venerable Chaiya established Chaiya Meditation Monastery in 1995.

As part of his practice of meditation, Ajahn Chaiya secludes himself for intensive meditation each year during the period referred to as Buddhist Lent.    Currently, Ajahn Chaiya has produced a series of cassette tapes and CDs more than 1,000 copies of Dhamma Teachings in the Thai, Burmese, and English languages.    The Monastery has been distributing his teaching materials including cassette tapes, CDs, Mp3, DVDs, and books FREE of charge around the world...read full story...