She studied contemporary dance and worked as a dancer and dance teacher until her early thirties when she had the opportunity to meet
Ajahn Sumedho in
England and to attend one of his
Dhamma talks and then a retreat.[2] She was one of the first four women ordained by Ajahn Sumedho in 1979 as an
anagārikā (an
eight-precept novice) and in 1983 as a ten-precept
sīladhārā.[3][4] After living at
Chithurst Buddhist Monastery in England, Ajahn Sundara moved in 1984 to
Amaravati Buddhist Monastery and was instrumental in founding the nuns' community there.[5] She went to Thailand in the mid-1990s, where she spent more than two years, primarily on retreat at forest monasteries. She has been teaching and leading retreats in Europe and North America for many years.[6] She currently resides at
Amaravati Buddhist Monastery, whose history and relevance to
women in Buddhism she has chronicled in the book chapter "The Theravada Sangha Goes West: The Story of Amaravati".[7]
^Angell, Jane (2006). "Women in Brown: a short history of the order of sīladharā, nuns of the English Forest Sangha, Part Two". Buddhist Studies Review. 23 (2).
doi:
10.1558/bsrv.2006.23.2.221.
ISSN1747-9681.