Origins
KEAP’s honorary founding patron was the late Most Venerable Samdech Preah Maha Ghosananda, the spiritual leader of Cambodian Buddhism who passed away in March 2007. KEAP began its work in 1988 by videotaping a dhamma talk by Venerable Ghosananda and screening/field-testing the tape in the refugee camps to thousands of monks, nuns, and laypeople. Referred to by many as the “Gandhi of Cambodia” Ghosananda has led Dhammayietras (literally, pilgrimages for the truth) throughout Cambodia since 1992 on behalf of peace and reconciliation, banning landmines, and environmental protection. For his selfless efforts, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize four times in 1990s.
KEAP is run by a Board of Directors based in Crestone, Colorado. The Board meets four times a year. Members of the of the international advisory council include Ven. Yos Hut Khemacaro (Cambodia and France); Joseph Goldstein (USA), of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts; Marcia Rose (USA), a guiding teacher of Vipassana meditation; Dr. Walter Aschmoneit (Germany), a researcher and people-centered development expert; Prof. Padmasiri De Silva, (Sri Lanka & Australia), a Theravada Buddhist scholar; and Prof. Donald K. Swearer (USA), author of numerous studies of Buddhism in Southeast Asia.
KEAP’s home office is staffed by ad interim Executive Director Peter Gyallay-Pap. Our head office in Cambodia, led by acting Country Representative Ven. Som Saroun, is at the Buddhist University branch in Battambang, assisted in Phnom Penh by Field Coordinator Mr. Keo Vichith, a former monk and graduate of the Dhammayietra Center for Peace and Non-Violence.