The Biography : 
(Formerly Dr. Phramaha Laow Panyasiri)
Aslo Known as Dr Phramaha Laow Panyasiri BA (MCU), MA (London), Ph.D. (Birmingham)

Dr. Panyasiri is Secretary-General of the Council of Thai Buddhist Monks in the United Kingdom and Abbot of the Buddhavihara Temple, Kings Bromley, UK. He taught the British Samatha Chanting Group to chant the Mahasamaya Sutta by heart.

Dr. Panyasiri graduated from Mahachulalongkorn Buddhist University in 1987 before going to work in the UK as a Dhammaduta missionary monk at the Buddhapadipa Temple in Wimbledon, London. While doing this work he also studied, and was active in charitable work in the UK and Thailand. He co-founded the Anglo-Thai Foundation in 1990 to raise funds to support the education of poor children in Thailand. The Foundation is still active and successful. In 1993 he studied at the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London, completing his MA degree in 1995.

In July1995 he became Abbot of the Buddhavihara Temple, Aston, Birmingham and began teaching Buddhist Studies, Buddhist Chanting and Meditation.

In 1998 Dr Panyasiri began studying part-time for a PhD degree by research at Birmingham University. He was appointed Buddhist Chaplain to the University and, in the following year, to Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham. In 2004 he was the first Thai Buddhist monk to receive a PhD degree from a British University.

In 2005 Dr Panyasiri brought the British Samatha Chanting Group to Thailand to perform chanting to advertise the value and quality of Buddhist practice in the West.

With eighteen years’ experience in Great Britain as a Buddhist missionary monk closely involved with British Buddhists, he will offer a paper at the UN Conference on World Vesak Day in Bangkok.

In 2006 Dr Panyasiri delivered a paper on “The Dissemination of  Buddhism: Opportunities and Challenges” at the UN Vesak Day Conference in Bangkok, drawing on his experience of working with British people and, more broadly, in continental Europe.

He has also brought the Samatha Chanting Group to Thailand for the last two years. In 2005, the Group toured five regions of Thailand, chanting for world peace, and in 2006 the Group chanted the Mahasamaya Sutta on the auspicious occasion of the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Accession to the Throne of His Majesty the King of Thailand.

Dr Panyasiri is known  to Thai people in the UK as one of the best teachers of chanting, with special expertise in teaching  chanting to Westerners.

He has received an award from Princess Sirinthorn as the monk best performing Buddhist missionary work abroad in 2005. In 2006 His Majesty the King offered him the new title of Phrakru Panyasudhammawithet.
 
In 2006 he was appointed an overseas member of the UN Vesak Day Organising Commission and became Secretary-General of the Thai Sangha Mission in the UK.

After being very appreciatively received on their last two visits to Thailand, the Samatha Chanting Group has been accorded the great honour of chanting the Sutta of the Great Congregation (Mahasamaya Sutta) at the United Nations and at Wat Phrakaew, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, Bangkok, in honour of His Majesty the King’s Eightieth Birthday.

The Buddhavihara Temple
Eastfield House  Kings Bromley  Alrewas Road  Burton On Trent
Tel & Fax (0044)01543472315  
Website:  www.watthaiuk.com,    www.watthauk.net
Email:  Temple    : ajahn@watthaiuk.com      Direct  : ppanyasiri@yahoo.com