The association was founded in 1994 at the request of Venerable Ajahn Tong Sirimangalo from Chiang Mai by Thai people from the Rhine-Main area.
The name of our monastery is "Wat Buddha Piyawararam" after the Thai King Rama V (Chulalongkorn), who is considered the founder of modern Thailand and is greatly revered by the Thais: "Friends of the Buddha and the King".
The purpose of the association is to promote a Buddhist religious community by maintaining a Thai Buddhist monastery as a place of prayer and meeting for Thais and Europeans in the Rhine-Main area.
Furthermore, the promotion of the study and practice of Buddhist and other spiritual paths and teachings that serve the self-knowledge and inner liberation of man is one of the purposes of the association. In particular, training and further education in meditative exercises and methods is offered. Through the understanding of these spiritual foundations, a contribution is intended to be made to peaceful coexistence.
Buddhist monks and nuns from Thailand or other countries are invited to stay in the temple for the purpose of providing religious services to the members and friends of the association.
In 1996, the Board decided to buy a house in the vicinity of Frankfurt as the seat of the monastery. In 1997, the property in Götzenhain was purchased by the association and converted into a Thai monastery and meditation centre in the following years.
Our monks, nuns and meditation teachers teach "mindfulness" meditation (Vipassana). The meditator is mindful of body, feelings, mind and mind-objects. He brings attention to the 6 sense gates of thinking, seeing, smelling, tasting, hearing and feeling as well as to the 5 hindrances: Greed, Anger, Sloth/Fatigue, Restlessness/Worry and Doubt. The aim is to reduce these obstacles through mindful awareness of all mental and physical states in order to see the world as it is and find inner peace.