Early life and steadfast faith
Than Mae Kru Narawan Kulathornchutiphas was born in Trang province on 20 July 1948, the eldest daughter of Thong Sae-Tae and Nalkee Rianseangchin, with four younger siblings: Boonlue Kulathornchutiphas, Somchai Kulathornchutiphas, Pianpen Wongworn, and Sorasit Sitthichai.
From childhood she held a deep interest in and faith toward Buddhism, noticing the impermanence of life from an early age. However much time passed, her faith never wavered — indeed, as the years went by her understanding of the essence of life only deepened, growing into an unshakeable confidence in the teaching of the Buddha.
From nurse to Buddhist nun
She spent her early years in study and ordinary working life until 1982 when, at the age of 34, she was working as a nurse at Hua Chiew Hospital in Bangkok. Caring for the sick, she saw for herself the impermanence of the body — birth, ageing, sickness, and death, day after day. For this very reason she made the firm and decisive resolve to turn away from worldly life and enter the holy life without hesitation, ordaining as “Mae Chee Narawan Kulathornchutiphas” with Phra Ajahn Sawang of Wat Nanthikaram, Khon Kaen province, as her preceptor.
Student of the Great Teacher
In 1983 she had the opportunity to become a meditation student of the Great Teacher, Ven. Dr. Bhaddanta Āsabha Mahāthera, Dhammācariya, Aggamahākammaṭṭhānācariya. When she respectfully described to him the states she had seen in her practice, he pointed out that this was “the state of not-self (anattā)” — bringing her to a clear understanding of what had arisen.
She then accompanied the Great Teacher on his travels together with his community of students, receiving his practical training until her understanding of the Dhamma grew deep. He affirmed her as one of penetrating wisdom, able to reach subtle and profound states of Dhamma that few practitioners attain, and entrusted her to serve as his assistant in spreading the path of practice to the meditators of that time.
Later, when she established the Vipassana Mental Development Center in Trang, the Great Teacher affirmed her as the principal vipassanā teacher of the southern region: given the difficulty of travel in those days, his students in the South who could not journey to the Vivek Asom meditation center in Chonburi could instead report their practice to Mae Chee Narawan in Trang.
The aspiration to be a “giver”
With firm resolve and a powerful wish to help practitioners — women especially — reach the highest Dhamma in Buddhism, she dedicated herself to spreading the teaching with great sacrifice, giving her own wealth and labour to build the Vipassana Mental Development Center in her native Trang, out of gratitude to the land of her birth, as a place of practice for all, aimed at the complete extinguishing of suffering.
She resolved to be a boundless “giver” to every seeker of the Dhamma, making no distinction of rich or poor, extending her kindness to all equally.— the aspiration of Than Mae Kru Narawan Kulathornchutiphas
True to her aspiration to be a boundless “giver” to every seeker of the Dhamma, she made no distinction of wealth or status, extending her kindness to all equally — asking only that the practitioner be earnest in practising for the end of suffering, offered as practice in homage to her.
To the last day of her life
Than Mae Kru Narawan Kulathornchutiphas devoted herself tirelessly to spreading the Dhamma throughout her life, until 2 April 2007, when she passed away at the age of 59.