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Master Nun Chand Khonnokyoong
Biography and Childhood Determination
Iron Shin
Master Nun Chand Khonnokyoong, commonly referred to as Khun Yai (a term of endearment meaning “grandmother” in Thai that stands as a respectful way to call older women) was born on January 19, 1909, to a family of rice farmers in Nakorn Chaisri District, Nakorn Pathom Province. She was the fifth of nine children born to her father Ploy and mother Pan Khonnokyoong. As a child, Khun Yai helped her parents with the housework and was a core person in tending to their crops.
A neighbor whose rice field was adjacent to her noticed her hard-working nature and often competed with her by trying to make it to the rice field first each morning. However, no matter how early he went to the field, he never once arrived before Khun Yai. In light of her unmatched diligence, tirelessness, and strength, he ended up giving her the nickname “Iron Shin.”
Growing up in the family, Khun Yai saw the good times and the tough times of her parents living together as a couple. Her father drank alcohol regularly and often quarreled with her mother when intoxicated. One day while drunk, he was mumbling nonstop. Khun Yai’s mother was annoyed; so she shouted, “A sparrow living in another’s nest. What are you mumbling about?” Having heard this, Khun Yai’s father was furious. So, he asked the children if they heard the mother scolding him. Due to the heated tone of his voice, nobody dared to answer the question. Khun Yai did not want her parents to fight, so she said that her mother probably did not mean it. This made her father very angry, so he cursed her, “May you be deaf for 500 lifetimes.”
Her father’s curse made Khun Yai very worried, because she believed that parents’ words were sacred and potent. Since it was a Thai tradition to ask a dying person for forgiveness for any transgressions you may have made against them, Khun Yai made a resolve to ask for her father’s forgiveness, so the curse could be lifted. Unfortunately, she never had the opportunity to do so on the day her father died. This lead to a deep fear of her father’s curse that would continue to weigh heavy on her mind. Now that her father had passed away, the only place to find him now was in the afterlife realm.