November 20, 2025 Seward Folly Staff

There’s a new face in Seward who’s hard to miss, especially in the mornings, walking with his alms bowl between the Chamber of Commerce and the harbor. His name is Bhante Andrew, a Theravada Buddhist monk, and the pioneer of boreal wilderness meditation practice. He stands out, dressed in simple light brown robes. He currently lives without heat in a cold and wet tent off Nash Road. Every day, he walks—or sometimes catches a ride—into town to collect alms: food donated by others who want to support him, which he can only eat before solar noon, which is currently around 12:45 p.m. He can’t eat after solar noon until the following dawn and subsists on only one meal every 24 hours.

Bhante Andrew grew up in upstate New York, wandered west to Colorado when he was 18, and eventually spent nearly seven years at a forest monastery in California, training under a Buddhist master. This is currently his ninth year as a fully ordained monk, called a Bhikkhu. For the more than the past three years, he’s called Alaska home, drawn by its wilderness, culture and lack of modern development. He’s also traveled extensively into remote northern parts of Canada, especially Yukon and Northwest Territories where he has wandered for longer stretches in the deep wild.

Theravada Buddhism traces its roots to the wandering teacher Buddha in South Asia over 2,500 years ago. Bhante Andrew earnestly chose the path of Buddhist monasticism from the time he was 20 years old, which means letting go of money, careers, marrige, sexuality, music, entertainment, movies, and much more—pretty much everything that defines modern living.

photo by Tim Ozerkov

Bhante Andrew walked and caught a ride to Seward from the Turnagain arm. He spent days traveling on foot from Bird Valley, passing through uninhabited terrain which meant going without food until he reached Girdwood, where he received alms. The last stretch from Girdwood to Seward was difficult, and after days of walking, someone gave him a ride for the final leg. He was emaciated when he arrived over a month ago. He set up camp on the side of Mt. Alice, but after a severe fall storm, a local couple asked him to pitch his tent in their yard, still secluded from the road and fitting for a wilderness monk. Bhante Andrew’s not wedded to cold and wet tent life, but for now, it’s his only choice. He will gladly stay somewhere warm if the right opportunity were to arise. He admits that Seward can be brutally cold—the humidity and wind sometimes making it worse than Fairbanks.

For Buddhist monks, relying on the laity for food is part of the tradition, a daily practice that’s meant to foster generosity and compassion on both sides, while ensuring that the monks and laity will always have daily contact with one another. This dynamic between monks and lay people is what has kept the Theravada monastic order alive for almost 2600 years, the oldest unbroken monastic tradition of mankind. Theravada monks like Bhante Andrew simply walk with their alms bowl to recieve food, they do not do soliciting or ask anyone uninvited. They do not impose any obligation that anyone offer them food.

Bhante Andrew doesn’t watch TV, movies, or use social media. When he reads, it’s usually for practical reasons. He does have a phone that he selectively uses to communicate and for emergencies.  

He spends most of his free time meditating and exploring in the wilds, all the while adhering to the hundreds of rules he must follow in accordance with the Theravada monastic code. He is forbidden from using money and has only few possessions with him. This way of life, centered around mind development through earnest meditation, higher morality, and rugged wilderness living is meant to cultivate the skills neccessary for the refined work of the Theravada Buddhist Path.

Bhante Andrew knows some people are hesitant to approach him, but he welcomes good natured discussion about meditation, this lifestyle, or all things Alaska. Wilderness monks live on the edge of society, not contributing to the monetary economy. They are renunciates who have instead dedicated themselves entirely to the higher development of the mind, removed from all the endless distractions and trappings of the modern world.

“Yes, you can call it a religion, and that might be accurate, but it’s more useful to think of Theravada Buddhism as a skill,” he says. Buddhism takes many forms, and this is just one—one that requires a certain resilience and strong fortitude, especially here, surrounded by cold, wet, wild nature.

Bhante Andrew genuinely likes Seward—he treasures the proximity and access to real wilderness right next to town. More locals are stopping to chat and offer alms, something he feels fits with the spirit of early Buddhism. “It’s hard to find truly wild country in the world anymore where you can live as a genuine wilderness monk year round,” he says. Here, at least, he feels at home.