Alaska Therāvada

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This website was created by a lay supporter of an American Theravāda Buddhist monk, Taan Andrew (Dhammādhipo Bhikkhu), a wilderness meditation monk who practices primarly north of the 60° latitutde of North America. He currently lives throughout Alaska.

One future goal of Taan Andrew’s is to eventually bring fellow monks up to live and practice throughout Alaska, and allow monks the opportunity to practice throughout Yukon and Northwest Territories as well. In addition, he wants to provide laypeople with the opportunity to practice with wilderness monks. The primary purpose of this website is to provide a glimpse of what wilderness practice north-of-sixty looks like and where it may be headed.

This website is not that of an existing or aspiring monastery, meditation center, hermitage, or anything similar, and it isn’t connected with any organization.

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January 0001

2024

03-13-24 Than Andrew is currently staying on Kachemak Bay until the end of April 2024. He will then be staying on Kodiak island beginning in early May.

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Alaska

Alaska has undoubtedly the most variety of climate and terrain than anywhere else north of the 60° latitude. The immense wilderness access and lack of modern development in much of the state makes Alaska very conducive to wilderness practice. That is if one can endure and make use of the long winters, camp in often unpredictable and rugged weather, practice amongst the plentiful bears and other large animals, take the risk camping in places far away from modern conveniences and services, and the list goes on and on.

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Contact

Contact: –inquiry@alaskatheravada.org for any inquiries. –thejeb@thecolddark.com for technical questions. –contributions@alaskatheravada.org

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Northwest Territories

Than Andrew says Northwest Territories is his first choice long-distance destination for wilderness practice in all of North-America. And the Mackenzie mountains are his favorite mountain range to practice in. There is very little road access to the Mackenzies. A lesser known 231 mile through-hiking trail, the Canol Heritage Trail, will lead you from Norman Wells, NWT to near the Yukon NWT border or vice-versa. The CHT passes through some very remote regions of the Mackenzies and a wide variety of unique terrain.

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Yukon

At this time, there are no known established communities aimed at Dhamma practice in Yukon. However, if we don’t include native, private, or government owned land, we can say that the greater percentage of Yukon–the wilderness– is a widely available public resource for Dhamma practice open to anyone who wants to utilize it. Spending the spring and or summer deep in Yukon is extraordinary, if you’re fortunate enough to avoid wildfires.

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