The Aloka Vihara nuns trained for many years as monastics at Amaravati and Chithurst monasteries in England before moving to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2009, where they established Aloka Vihara. After four and a half years in San Francisco, they moved to a rural forest property in California’s Sierra Foothills in mid 2014.
Transitioning to this larger property provides a setting for welcoming female aspirants to monastic life and also offers the possibility for interested lay men and women to visit, practice, serve and take part in daily monastic life.
The nuns have the opportunity to deepen their connections with the local community and the land, while creating supportive conditions for a monastic sangha to grow.
Ways to Be Involved
- Visit the vihara for a shorter or longer stay.
- Offer meals or rides for the nuns.
- Volunteer to help out at the vihara.
- Join ‘Friends of Aloka Vihara’.
- Offer a financial contribution to Saranaloka Foundation to provide the Four Requisites of food, medicine, lodgings, and clothing and to develop the monastery.