Ajahn Bodhidhaja
Bhante Bodhidhaja was born in April 1982 as the third child of Czech immigrants to Switzerland. He was introduced to Buddhism at an early age by one of his neighbours and was drawn to it ever since. At the age of twenty-one Nicolas Vrticka (that was his lay name) visited India and took temporary ordination under the late Acharya Buddharakkhita in Bangalore (Maha Bodhi Society Bengaluru). Bhikkhu Buddharakkhita gave him the monastic name Bodhidhaja in 2003 and he decided to keep it in memory of him. After graduating from teacher training college, Nicolas worked as a primary school teacher in the countryside for one year. He also chose to engage in various kinds of social work for a bit more than a year, as an alternative to the compulsory military training in Switzerland. In late 2006 Nicolas started to spend most of his time living, practising and serving as a lay person in different Buddhist monastic communities around the globe. They included Metta Vihara Forest Monastery in Germany (established by Bhikkhuni Ayya Khema), Amaravati Monastery in England (when Ajahn Sumedho was still in residence) and Bodhinyana Buddhist Monastery in Australia. After this initial period of monastery hopping Nicolas arrived in Perth in May 2010 in order to ordain as an Anagarika and to take up monastic training. Ajahn Brahm subsequently gave him novice ordination in May 2011 and higher ordination in July 2012. Bhante Bodhidhaja is part of the BSWA’s monastic community in Serpentine and occasionally helps out in Newbury Buddhist Monastery near Melbourne.