Most Venerable Phra Prom Mongkol Vi
(Venerable Phra Ajahn Tong Sirimangalo)
Venerable Phra Ajahn Tong Sirimangalo was born in 1923 and dedicated his whole life to the practice and dissemination of Vipassana meditation. He is a highly respected monk and meditation teacher in Thailand as well as internationally, and has played an important part in making the Vipassana meditation technique accessible to international practitioners.
He passed away on December 13, 2019 in Wat Phradhatu Sri Chom Tong Voravihara in Chiang Mai, Thailand, at the age of 96.
He ordained as a novice in 1934 and he was fully ordained as a monk in 1944. During the 1950s he was sent to Wat Mahathat in Bangkok for one year as the only representative of the Northern-Thai Sangha to practice Vipassana meditation based on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. In the following two years he learned and studied in Burma amongst others with Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw Bhaddantasobhana Mahathera.
Venerable Phra Ajahn Tong Sirimangalo was one of the most respected meditation teachers in Thailand. In 2016 he was awarded with the title “Phra Prom Mongkol Vi”.
With the beginning of the 1980s he started conducting Vipassana courses in Europe and the USA. Throughout the final years of his life he predominantly lived and taught in Wat Phradhatu Sri Chom Tong Voravihara near Chiang Mai in Thailand (short “Chomtong”). Chomtong is a large and well-known meditation monastery with an affiliated international centre for foreign meditators. The latter is managed by Khun Thanat and Khun Kathryn Chindaporn (for further information, please see “Visiting Teachers“).