When, in 1980, a group of local yoga students tried to find a suitable cottage which they could offer as a retreat facility to the Sangha, farmer John Wake of Harnham Hall, Harnham, near Belsay responded, and they agreed to rent one of his farm cottages.
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In 1981 Ajahn Sucitto (now the abbot of Cittaviveka/Chithurst Buddhist Monastery) became the first bhikkhu to take up residence, and began initial renovations; on June 21, 1981 the monastery was officially opened by Ajahn Sumedho and in that same year the Magga Bhavaka Trust was established as a charitable trust in order to steward financial support for the new monastery (the monastery now has a new trust: Harnham Buddhist Monastery Trust).
Aruna Ratanagiri Buddhist Monastery lies on a hilltop 3 miles to the north-west of Belsay, in the hamlet of Harnham.
Aruna Roy | Aruna Irani | Aruna Ratanagiri | Aruna |