Qualla: Wat Pah Nanachat https://qualla.com/wat-pah-nanachat en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:36 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/w/6/d/w/wat-pah-nanachat-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Wat Pah Nanachat https://qualla.com/wat-pah-nanachat Wat Pah Nanachat: Introduction https://qualla.com/wat-pah-nanachat/ Photo credit International Forest Monastery, CC BY-SA 3.0. At 3:00 a.m. the bell rings at Wat Pah Nanachat. In the dark, monks from Australia, Europe, the Americas, and Southeast Asia rise together and walk to the main hall for morning chanting. The language of instruction is English, the code of discipline is 2,500 years old, and the setting is a forest in the Isaan region of northeast Thailand. This particular combination — ancient Theravada practice, conducted in a non-Asian language, in a rural Thai monastery — was Ajahn Chah's answer to a question he received from Western practitioners in the 1970s: where do we go to train?

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Image: International Forest Monastery | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/6/d/w/wat-pah-nanachat-wp/w6dw-wat-pah-nanachat-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Wat Pah Nanachat: Founded for Foreigners https://qualla.com/wat-pah-nanachat/ Photo credit Editorq35, CC BY-SA 4.0. Wat Pah Nanachat — the name means International Forest Monastery in Thai — was established in 1975 by Ajahn Chah in response to growing interest from practitioners in Europe and North America who wanted to train in the Theravadin forest tradition but found the Thai-language envir...

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Image: Editorq35 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/6/d/w/wat-pah-nanachat-wp/w6dw-wat-pah-nanachat-founded-for-foreigners.mp3 0:06 2 full Wat Pah Nanachat: A Day in the Forest https://qualla.com/wat-pah-nanachat/ Photo credit International Forest Monastery, CC BY-SA 3.0. The monastery's daily schedule is structured to support uninterrupted practice. After the 3:30 a.m. chanting session, monks go out on almsround at 6:00 a.m., walking the surrounding villages in their saffron robes to receive food offerings. Laypeople visiting the monastery accomp...

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Image: International Forest Monastery | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/6/d/w/wat-pah-nanachat-wp/w6dw-wat-pah-nanachat-a-day-in-the-forest.mp3 0:06 3 full Wat Pah Nanachat: The Practice Itself https://qualla.com/wat-pah-nanachat/ Photo credit International Forest Monastery, CC BY-SA 3.0. Meditation at Wat Pah Nanachat follows the spirit of Ajahn Chah's teaching, which refused to draw a sharp line between vipassana (insight) and samatha (tranquility). He saw them as two aspects of a single cultivated awareness. Breathing meditation predominates. Lay visitors obser...

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Image: International Forest Monastery | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/6/d/w/wat-pah-nanachat-wp/w6dw-wat-pah-nanachat-the-practice-itself.mp3 0:06 4 full Wat Pah Nanachat: Seed of a Global Tradition https://qualla.com/wat-pah-nanachat/ Photo credit Annatanama, Public domain. Wat Pah Nanachat sits about 15 kilometers from Ubon Ratchathani city in the Tambon Bung Wai area of Warin Chamrap district. Its physical remoteness has not prevented it from generating enormous influence. The abbots who trained here went on to establish and lead major monasteries...

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Image: Annatanama | Public domain

]]> Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/6/d/w/wat-pah-nanachat-wp/w6dw-wat-pah-nanachat-seed-of-a-global-tradition.mp3 0:06 5 full