Kee Nanayon was born in 1901 in the provincial town of Rajburi, about a hundred kilometres west of Bangkok.
When she was young, she liked to visit the nearby Buddhist monastery, especially on the weekly Observance Day when she listened to Dhamma from the monks and kept the Eight Precepts.
Sometimes she would rest from her work around the house by developing tranquillity meditation in any suitably quiet corner.
Khao-suan-luang is the name of a secluded, picturesque hill about twenty kilometers from Rajburi, near where her uncle and aunt lived.
Whenever she visited them, she always felt comfortable there an eventually, in 1945, persuaded her relatives to move their house over to the hill.
This was the begin ning the first three members of the community which was later to develop there. Upasika Kee attracted Dhamma students, and residents came to include both female lay devotee and white-robed nuns.
She taught her disciples to develop meditation, to chant at least every morning and evening, and to avoid stimulants like coffee, cigarettes and meat. They could listen to her talks and try to follow the example of her simple way of living.
She made herself comfortable on the barest necessities and never indulged in luxuries, either in food or material things.
Strictly keeping the Eight Precepts and con- stantly trying to guard the sense doors were basic to her practice.
In later years she developed corneal ulcers and eventually became blind. She passed away in 1978 but her community still continues with about thirty residents.
These Dhamma talks were given mainly to the women who stayed at her centre to practise meditation. (Men could visit to listen to the Dhamma talks but were not permitted to stay.) After listening with calmed, centred minds, they would all sit in meditation together.
On occasion, some nuns or lay devotees might take on a special practice by going on solitary retreat in a separate meditation hut. It was known as guarding the sense doors and could last for one or two weeks.
