Luang Puu Khamkhaning Chullamani

Luang Puu Khamkhaning Chullamani

Luang Puu Khamkhaning Chullamani was born 1894 at Ban Nongbua, Khwaeng Khammuan, in the Kingdom of Laos. As a young boy, he became a Buddhist novice, a practice traditionally commended as an expression of gratitude to his parents and fulfillment of a boy's duty. Later he became a recluse (a Rishi, or solitary forest dweller) for eighteen years, and became so renowned for his rigid religious observance that the King of Laos patronized the ordination of the young recluse into Buddhist monkshood in a monastery in Vientiane. He studied under Achan Moey and became highly specialized in the practice of spiritual tranquility.
He later crossed the Mekhong River into Thailand and lived in a remote cave under the steep cliff in the area called "Mae Nam Song Si" (two-colored river). The place was at the mouth of Moon River, the clear water of which retained its bluish color for some length of time before mixing with the brownish color of the larger Mekhong River, and is now in Amphoe Khong Chiam, Ubon Ratchadhani. Luang Puu named his cave Tham Khuha Sawan (the Heavenly Cave). More and more people settled around the cave which within his lifetime became developed into Wat Tham Khuha Sawan Monastery. Luang Puu devoted his life to teaching Buddhism there for thirty-two years. He passed away on the 17th of April 1985 at the age of ninety-one.
A statue of his holy body made of wax and covered with hundredthousand leafes of flatt gold donated by hundredthousands visitors giving high respect to him.