Bhikkhuni Rattanayani

Thailand

Bhikkhuni Dhamma Rattanayani

Thailand

Bhikkhuni Dhamma Rattanayani holds two Bachelor's Degrees: Communication Arts and Buddhist Studies. After graduation, she worked in the real estate sector for 19 years.

Upon her step-mother passing away, she pursued monthly Vipassana meditation in order to dedicate merits to her. Four years passed, and one day when she was in Bangkok, she heard Bhikkhuni Suphotha give a Dhamma talk. After the talk, she inquired about ordination. Bhikkhuni Suphotha had lung cancer. She happened to visit the Bhikkhuni again, and on her last day of life. The dying Bhikkhuni said, "What are you all doing? Soon you'll have to lie down and leave this world like me. Hurry and do good deeds." Within three days she began to prepare for ordination as a novice and was ordained in 2013 at Kau Yau Bhikkhuni Temple, Dhamma Tippaya Sathan.

In 2015 in Sri Lanka at the Sakyadhita Meditation Center, she received Higher Ordination. After ordination she returned to Kau Yau Bhikkhuni Temple and remained to study Dhamma and Vinaya.

At the end of October 2023, her father invited her to establish a monastery to serve the community of her hometown and nearby areas. He had previously gifted her 11 rai of land in 2010. So, she returned to her hometown to establish, Yani Dhamma Sathan Bhikkhuni Monastery, which currently has 3 kutis and a meditation hall under construction. She began this project in 2024 and has resided on site to present.

She is grateful to all of her teachers and Dhamma sisters, and especially to Bhikkhuni Dhammananda for the donation of a Maha Paja Pati statue. She vows for the Bhikkhuni community of the Four Rivers of Nakhon Sawan Province to be firmly established.

Her monastery offers: study and practice for lay people, 8-precept white-robed nuns, Samaneris and Bhikkhunis. Bhikkhuni Dhamma Rattanayani ordains Samaneris and holds practice sessions on important national and religious holidays.