Ayya Tathaloka Bhikkhuni Mahatheri

Ayya Tathaloka Bhikkhuni Mahatheri was born in Washington, DC in 1968 to environmentally-minded scientist parents. She followed her mother’s example by observing nature for answers and for peace, and her father’s example of inquiry through scientific research and investigation.

At age 19, urgently inspired by the sudden death of someone with whom she’d been close, she left university and made her way to Europe and India, entering monastic life as an Anagarika. Later she met her female mentor in Buddhist monastic life in South Korea, Bhikkhuni Elder Myeong Seong Sunim, under whose guidance she trained for 10 years. Ayya Tathaloka received the “Going Forth” with her bhikkhuni mentor in 1993 and Samaneri precepts in 1995.

Returning to the United States in early 1996, she received Bhikkhuni Upasampada with an international gathering of Bhikkhu and Bhikkhuni Sanghas in Los Angeles in 1997, with the late Bhikkhu Ratanasara Sangha Nayaka Thera as her Upajjhaya (preceptor). Since then Ayya Tathaloka has focused on studying and practicing Dhamma-Vinaya and has conducted research in Comparitive Bhikkhuni Vinaya and World Bhikkhuni Sangha History, contributing articles on these subjects.

Recognizing the growing number of Theravadin Bhikkhunis and Samaneris in the United States and the true value of coming together in harmony, Ayya Tathaloka proposed and participated in the founding of the North American Bhikkhuni Association (NABA) in 2005. Several months later, she also participated in founding the Dhammadharini Vihara and the Dhammadharini Support Foundation. In 2009, she received the gift of use of coastal redwood forested land for an off-the-grid women’s monastic hermitage, Aranya Bodhi.

She served as the founding abbess (retired) of earlier iterations of Dhammadharini Vihara and the contemporary Dhammadharini Monastery in the San Francisco North Bay, and of the Aranya Bodhi Hermitage on the Sonoma Coast in Northern California.

Ayya Tathaloka was the first Western woman to be designated as Theravadan Bhikkhuni preceptor (Pavattini/Upajjhaya); she has also served as a senior monastic advisor to the Dhammadharini Support Foundation, the Alliance of Bhikkhunis, New Zealand Bhikkhuni Sangha Trust, Dhammakhema Trust of Sri Lanka, and Sakyadhita USA.