Luang Pu Waen Suchinno and the forest tradition
From Loei to the northern forests
Luang Pu Waen Suchinno belonged to Ajahn Mun's forest tradition. Chinese collectors know him as 龍普元 or 龍普灣, while his late-life monastery, Wat Doi Mae Pang (วัดดอยแม่ปั๋ง), is known as 瓦兜昧榜. It stands in Phrao, Chiang Mai, far from his birthplace in northeastern Loei. From ordination in a village monastery to seeking teachers and living in the northern forests, wandering shaped his long monastic life.
Biographies usually give his birth as 16 January B.E. 2430 at Ban Na Pong, Loei. His lay name appears as ยาน or ญาณ Ramsiri. Family accounts describe his father Sai as a farmer and blacksmith, his mother as Kaeo, and ancestors from Luang Prabang. These early details survive chiefly in later biographies, with variant parental names in circulation.
Childhood tradition recalls his mother's wish that he remain ordained for life. It also tells of his grandmother dreaming that he sat among turmeric plants, his body golden-yellow. She took this as an omen that he would wear the saffron robe. His mother's request and his grandmother's hopes remained part of the story disciples told about his early ordination.
Ordination and the search for teachers
He became a novice at his home monastery, Wat Pho Chai (วัดโพธิ์ชัย; 瓦波猜), later studied in the Ubon region, and received full ordination in the Mahanikaya order. One biography places his novice ordination at age nine in B.E. 2439. His education took him from a village monastery to regional centres of Buddhist learning, although ages, temple names and dates for his first full ordination vary between versions.
Ajahn Mun Bhuridatto became a major meditation teacher. One biography describes Waen learning his whereabouts from Ajahn Chuang and travelling to find him. Mun asked him to set book-learning aside and practise. Wandering did not mean learning entirely alone: Waen returned to his teacher with questions arising from meditation.
Luang Pu Tue was a fellow practitioner and travelling companion, rather than a disciple in these accounts of their journeys. Their biographies encompass northeastern and northern Thailand and travel abroad, including references to Burma, India and Luang Prabang. These journeys belong to different stages of their lives, and versions differ over their sequence.
One biography recounts Waen walking alone from Phayao towards Lampang and sheltering overnight in a forest rest house. With no village nearby and tigers calling outside, he chanted and practised loving-kindness. The cold made him rise three times to replenish the fire. He slept near dawn for about two hours, waking in daylight.
Waen later joined the Dhammayut order at Wat Chedi Luang (วัดเจดีย์หลวง), Chiang Mai, under Phra Ubali Khunupamachan, Chan Sirichanto. One biography dates this to B.E. 2470. By then he had passed through novice life, full ordination and years of seeking instruction; reordination marked a further stage of his monastic life.
Waen's teaching urged attention to the present rather than past or future, alongside generosity, moral discipline and meditation.
His later monastery and close students
Wat Doi Mae Pang became his best-known late-life residence. Luang Pu Nu Suchitto (หลวงปู่หนู สุจิตฺโต), also named 阿詹盧 in Chinese, was central to this period. A biography describes Nu inviting the ailing Waen from Wat Pa Ban Pong and caring for him until his death. That sustained assistance helped make the elder's continued forest practice possible.
A tradition dates Nu's invitation to B.E. 2505: during meditation he heard Waen say he would come; three days later, he invited him. Waen occupied a small hut, leaving temple duties to Nu.
Younger monks recorded as having studied with Waen include Luang Pu Boonsong Thitasaro of Wat Santi Wanaram, Chanthaburi. His biography names Waen among his teachers. Boonsong also studied with other forest elders, gaining experience through time spent with several teachers.
Boonsong recalled monks eagerly boiling water and washing Waen's lower and upper robes, without arguing over whose duty each task was. He remembered the warmth of living beside the teacher and serving him together. Preparing hot water, washing robes and attending to daily needs filled those years in the elder's company.
Public devotion and medical care
Royal visits, newspapers and devotees broadened Waen's reputation during the B.E. 2510s. The forest monk became a nationally recognisable figure, with portraits and commemorative medals circulating more widely and increasing numbers of visitors. Decades of seeking instruction and wandering preceded this public attention; in his later years, more people came to the monastery hoping to meet him.
Medical care was one tangible outcome. Chiang Mai University's Faculty of Medicine records that monks and disciples promoted the fifteen-storey Sujinno inpatient building to commemorate Waen's ninetieth-birthday celebration in B.E. 2521. Construction began on 24 September B.E. 2522 for Maharaj Nakorn Chiang Mai Hospital. It was a collective undertaking in his honour, not a separate hospital he founded.
The building also addressed everyday patient needs. Rooftop solar heating supplied warm water through copper pipes, particularly benefiting children and older patients; escape stairs occupied its three corners. Faculty records give a total usable area of 29,528 square metres, making this birthday commemoration a substantial investment in patient care.
On 26 March B.E. 2527, soon after the building opened, Waen was admitted with paralysis of his left arm and difficulty speaking and swallowing. He became the first patient in the building that bore his name; a brain examination recorded impaired blood supply affecting part of the right side. After treatment, he returned to Wat Doi Mae Pang on 11 April.
Later generations also commemorated him through community services. On 1 July B.E. 2568, Chiang Mai University dental and medical teams visited Wat Doi Mae Pang, providing examinations, fillings and other care for monks and residents in his memory. Medical workers and the local community carried on this commemorative work after his death.
The airborne apparition and royal stories
An airborne apparition is among the best-known Waen legends. In one Chinese version, a pilot in bad weather, nearly out of fuel, asks for help and sees the elder guiding his landing from the sky. When he goes to thank Waen at the monastery, the monk asks how a wingless monk could be a bird. That exchange became part of the circulating rescue story.
Another version, told in Thai, has the pilot check a map and question villagers before identifying the airborne monk as Waen. In this account, it is a doctor who later asks the elder whether he can fly. Waen replies by asking whether the doctor thinks he is a bird. The versions differ in the search that follows the sighting and in who speaks with him.
A wax-portrait legend tells of a doctor who credited Waen with helping his recovery and commissioned craftsmen in London to make a likeness in gratitude. According to the story, rain stopped and sunshine appeared just as the aircraft carrying the figure came to a halt in Chiang Mai.
Stories of Rama IX's visits include more everyday moments. Waen is said to have reminded the king to care for himself as well as others. In another account, he declines an invitation to travel by helicopter, explaining that he can send his good wishes to the king while remaining at the monastery. These episodes continue to circulate with accounts of his life.
Portrait medals and later remembrance
Among the early portrait medals is the B.E. 2513 “cow-face” issue (พิมพ์หน้าวัว). Collector accounts name Sunthorn Chantharawong as sponsor, Wat Santitham as the ceremony venue, and free distribution as its purpose. They place it before the Air Force Tho O 1 issue. Contemporary documentation is still needed to settle that ordering; calling a medal a “first issue” does not establish its authenticity.
Objects bearing Waen's portrait came from different monasteries, committees and public-benefit projects. Commemoration, participation in a blessing and personal manufacture are not interchangeable. Understanding an object requires its sponsor, purpose, ceremony and provenance, rather than an inference of authenticity from the monk's reputation.
Waen died on 2 July B.E. 2528. The biography's final medical account places his death at Maharaj Nakorn Chiang Mai Hospital. Although he had earlier vowed not to enter hospital, accounts of his final years include inpatient treatment. From forest journeys to care during illness, his remembered life includes his attendants, devotees' public-benefit work and miracle stories passed down through generations.
Differences within the biographical record
One early teacher attribution has a chronological problem. A later biography names Ajahn Sing Khantayakhomo as a teacher in B.E. 2445, whereas Suranaree University of Technology records his novice ordination in B.E. 2446 and full ordination in B.E. 2452. The discrepancy could concern the year, identity or later compilation; it remains unresolved.
Waen’s early Buddhist-era dates, the age-counting conventions used in different biographies and later birthday observances do not yield a settled Gregorian chronology. The combination “born in 1887, aged ninety-eight in completed years” remains unresolved.