Luang Por Dhammajayo
Thai Buddhist monk
Luang Por Dhammajayo (Thai: ธมฺมชโย, RTGS: Thammachayo, Luang Por being a deferential title; born 22 April 1944), also known by the lay name Chaiyabun Suddhipol, is a Thai Buddhist monk. He was the abbot of the Buddhist temple Wat Phra Dhammakaya, the post he held until 1999 and again from 2006 to December 2011. In December 2016, he was given the post of honorary abbot of the temple. He is a student of the nun (maechi) Chandra Khonnokyoong, and is the most well-known teacher of Dhammakaya meditation. He has been subject to criticism and government scrutiny. However, he continues to be a spiritual leader who has significant influence in Thai society. Luang Por Dhammajayo's approach to Buddhism seeks to combine the ascetic and meditative life with modern personal ethics and social prosperity.
Luang Por Dhammajayo met Maechi Chandra in his student years, and learnt about Buddhism from her. During his student years, he met a fellow student who later became known as Luang Por Dattajivo. Luang Por Dhammajayo started teaching together with Maechi Chandra, and in 1970, they started their own temple in Pathum Thani province, later called Wat Phra Dhammakaya.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3896432. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1944, 1999, 2006 and 2011.
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This entry incorporates text from “Luang Por Dhammajayo” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.