Lp Yim Wat Hua Khao

LP Yim is also known as Phra Upatcha Yim Siripunyo . He was born on 1st June 1863, nearing the end of the reign of Rama IV. He is believed to have come from Si Prachan District, Suphan Buri province, as might be inferred from his ordainment at Wat Sao Thong temple in Si Prachan District, as well as his efforts to restore the Wat Kai Tia temple, located in the same district.

Many monks in the Si Prachan district were also his pupils, and he was known to have had many Sahathammik from the area. His strong affinity for the area, along with his seeming established roots there, is widely seen as evidence that he might have originated from the area.

After restoring Wat Kai Tia, he went on a Tudong , eventually arriving at what became the present site of Wat Hua Khao. At the time the area was nothing but a dense tropical jungle, and yet, he chose it as a site of note, beginning the practice of pilgrimages to the area. Old-timers from the area recount that LP Yim has been greatly respected and revered by the people of the area, who eventually helped build Wat Hua Khao, inviting him to reside there as the temple’s first abbot. During his Tudong, LP met a staggering away of other spiritual masters. He exchanged his substantial amount of knowledge with them. Some of his own knowledge, he had gleaned from his intensive meditation practices. It is assumed that two of his principal teachers in his formative training, would have been LP Kaew, of Wat Phrao temple, Suphan Buri province, and Lp Suk, of Wat Pak Khlong Makham Thao temple, Chainat province.

He undertook the role of educator, liaison, spiritual leader, and teacher to the surrounding community, becoming a bastion of Buddhist principles until his passing at age 74, somewhere around the beginning of 1938. He departed our mortal realm, in the most wondrous manner possible, seated upright in a state of deep, contemplative meditation.