Bhikkhuni Uppala Vanna Magga Panna
Thailand
Bhikkhuni Uppala Vanna Magga Panna
Thailand
Bhikkhuni Uppala Vanna Magga Panna was born in 1968 as Phunkamon Wongsawad. She had the opportunity to attend elementary school grade 6 only because her father passed away and her family was in need. When she was young, she raised her three younger siblings. Although unable to attend school as other children she felt that she wanted to seek Dhamma. She successfully helped raise and finance her younger siblings until her one brother became a judge, her other brother became a small business owner, and her sister a nurse.
She decided to study the Dhamma in order to exit the cycle of existence rather than to study worldly subjects which she felt would increase her desires which never end. As a young girl she recognized that she enjoyed to make merit every day. If she could not give it directly, then she dropped it into a box and took it out when she went to the temple.
She got hired as a clerk and within 3 months she became a manager. After 5 years, she went to work at AIA and diligently earned her wages and many prizes for industriousness. One day when being awarded, she realized that her success depended on others, and therefore, she wanted to depend on herself and instead seek nibbana. So, she took a 7 day meditation course and realized that she wanted to pursue a path in Buddhism.
She travelled into Myanmar and remained for a year studying Burmese meditation techniques. Then she returned to Thailand and began to teach Buddhism to factory and industrial workers. She took her Samaneri and Bhikkhuni ordination vows in Thailand, and was shortly thereafter gifted land to build a temple, in Loburi, Thailand.
Currently, she has successfully established the Tan Phunkamon Wongsawad Foundation and is on her way to building a meditation center to encourage the four-fold Sangha. She has the skills to overcome the discrimination against Samaneris and Bhikkhunis in Thailand, and local villagers and officials have begun to visit her center.