Phra Acharn Mun was born in Northeast Thailand in 1870 and died in 1949, in his eightieth year by the Thai way of reckoning (see Figure 4). He is regarded in Thailand today as having been not only a great meditation master and exemplary monk, but also a great teacher (acharn) who trained a number of illustrious disciples, who were famous in the recent past or are famous today. Indeed, Mun is regarded by numerous pious Buddhists as an arahant (perfected saint) in the classical sense.

One of the saint's disciples, who is himself a meditation master and teacher at a Northeastern forest hermitage, Phra Acharn Maha Boowa, wrote a long biography of the saint. It was first written and published in Thai in serialized form in a religious journal called Sā Sapdā (Glorious Week) and was subsequently published as a book in 1971 under royal patronage. Because of the popularity and significance of the subject matter, the biography has been recently translated into English by Siri Buddhasukh, an ex-monk of the Thammayut sect, to which belongs the biographer and also belonged the saint. Buddhasukh now works for the World Federation of Buddhists, whose headquarters are in Bangkok, and also teaches at the Mahāmakut Monks' University, which too is a venture of the Thammayut sect.

Siri's translated biography was published in 1976. A thousand copies were printed and distributed free in the Thai tradition of “merit making”: Distribution of books containing religious material at cremations and commemorations is the Thai custom, especially among the affluent.