Eventually invited to found a monastery, he settled near Ubon Ratchathani.
In 1966, he accepts his first Western disciple, Sumedho Bhikkhu, who eventually becomes the abbot of a forest monastery strictly for foreign monks.
There are now over 200 monasteries affiliated to Ajahn Chah’s lineage in Thailand and 19 more in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the U.S.