The property at 100 Coalmines Road was purchased in 1986 by Elisabeth Gorski, a local Buddhist practitioner. Elisabeth felt that the land of Bundanoon itself was a spiritual place and purchased the property with the intention of setting it up as a meditation centre together with meditation teacher John Hale. As a fitting precursor to Santi’s role in supporting women’s ordination, one of the founding trustees was the first Western bhikkhuni of modern times, Ayya Khema.
The meditation centre never eventuated, and John Hale resettled in Tasmania, where he passed away a few years later. Elisabeth kept the property, and from time to time retreats were held or a monastic would reside here, yet the place never fulfilled its potential. Meanwhile, another local monastery, Sunnataram, was set up on land offered by Elisabeth to the monks there, although entirely independent of the Coalmines Road property.
In 1997, Elisabeth purchased two lots adjacent to the original property, bringing the total land size to around 150 acres. Two or three years later, she moved to Perth, where she took ordination as Ayya Nirodha, under Ajahn Brahm and Ajahn Vayama at Dhammasara Nuns’ Monastery. In October 2009, she became one of the first group of women to receive full Bhikkhuni ordination in the Forest Tradition in Australia along with Ajahn Vayama, Ajahn Seri and Ajahn Hasapanna.
Before leaving for Perth, Elisabeth established a charitable body, then called Citta Bhavana Incorporated, to manage the Coalmines Road property. This consisted of a small committee, with Ajahn Brahm as the Spiritual Director. At the AGM of 2003, it was agreed that the property should be run as a Forest Monastery under the leadership of Bhante Sujato, and the name was officially changed to Santi Forest Monastery Incorporated. In subsequent years, the constitution was amended to reflect these changes, and Bhante Sujato replaced Ajahn Brahm as the Spiritual Director.
Following 10 years of service as abbot and spiritual director, Bhante Sujato decided to move on and handed Santi over to the community of nuns to develop as a bhikkhuni monastery, a decision also supported by Ajahn Brahm, who then became Santi’s spiritual director again. Many nuns have stayed at Santi for various periods of time since then, and from 2014 Ayya Nirodha was the senior Bhikkhuni in residence.
In 2017 Ayya Nirodha retired from her leadership role to move into retreat-mode, and both she and Ajahn Brahm asked Ayya Jitindriyā to take on the leadership and guiding teacher role at Santi. In December 2018 Ajahn Brahm decided it was also time for him to step back as Spiritual Director , expressing his confidence in Ayya Jitindriyā to take on the role, to which she was subsequently elected by the resident sangha.
In 2021 Ayya Jitindriya and Ayya Jayasara invited the nuns at Dhammasara Monastery to come to Santi and help grow a female monastic community here in NSW. Since April 2021 nuns from Dhammasara have been staying at Santi Monastery and Ajahn Hasapanna became Spiritial Director in September 2021. After spending a few months with the Dhammasara nuns, showing them ropes at Santi, Ayya Jitindriya and Ayya Jayasara reitred to a small hermitage to continue their monastic life and spiritual practice.
