Ajarn Nam: A Life Between Wat Don Sala and Wat Khao O
At Wat Don Sala in Phatthalung, the story of Phra Ajarn Nam Chinwaro (พระอาจารย์นำ ชินวโร) is inseparable from the Wat Khao O tradition. He encountered its teachers as a boy, studied under Ajarn Iat after his first ordination, spent years as a layman with a family, and eventually returned to monastic life. His path connects teachers, a village community and a temple that he helped build for the future.
A childhood shaped by teachers
Thai biographical accounts name him as Nam Kaewchan and place his birth in BE 2434 (around 1891) near Ban Don Nut in Phatthalung. His parents were Kliang and Iat Kaewchan. His mother died when he was young. His father introduced him to local ritual knowledge and later took him to study with Ajarn Thong Thao of Wat Khao O. What began within a family thus became part of a wider southern Thai teacher–pupil network.
At around twenty, Nam was ordained at Wat Don Sala. There he studied Buddhist teaching, meditation and the local ceremonial tradition with Ajarn Iat Padumsaro. A biography says that after six rains retreats he left the monkhood, married Phum and raised four children. His association with Iat continued: as a lay pupil he helped his teacher with ceremonies. Leaving the robe did not end their relationship.
Returning to the robe
In BE 2506 (1963), Nam became seriously ill. Local biographies preserve a story of a dream and a vow to ordain again, although the details vary between tellings. The account records his second ordination at Wat Don Sala on 5 July of that year. He remained a monk until his death on 25 October BE 2519 (1976), and is also known by the monastic name Chinwaro.
His life crossed the boundary between monk and lay disciple more than once. That makes his relationship with Wat Don Sala especially vivid: it was a place to which he returned, not merely a name attached to his later reputation.
Building a place for the community
Thailand's Public Relations Department locates Wat Don Sala in Makok Nuea, Khuan Khanun, Phatthalung, and records its earlier name as Wat Tha Yung. Its founding date is uncertain, though local tradition reaches back to the Ayutthaya period. The temple maintained close ties with Wat Khao O; both Iat and Nam form part of that shared history.
In his later years, Nam helped advance construction of Wat Don Sala's ordination hall. Work began in BE 2513 (1970) and was completed in BE 2519 (1976). The Public Relations Department records royal involvement in ceremonies marking the foundation, the raising of the roof finial and the setting of the boundary stones. The hall remains a concrete part of the legacy associated with him and his community.
Objects that remember an era
Collectors connect Nam with accounts of sacred objects prepared with Ajarn Iat during the wartime year BE 2483 (1940), and with later powder amulets, Phra Pidta and inscribed talismans. A portrait medal made for the boundary-stone ceremony at Wat Don Sala in BE 2519 is particularly well known. Thai amulet reporting describes its portrait, reverse yantra and several metal varieties. Those documented design and production details offer a more meaningful way to study an object than its name alone.
Such objects invite us to follow a line from Thong Thao to Iat and Nam, and from Wat Khao O to Wat Don Sala. Their materials, forms, inscriptions and dates point back to people and places. Exploring one of Nam's works is also a way of exploring the history of the southern community that made it possible.