My name is Norman Kjellerup Hansen, affectionately known as Suvaco (pronouced “Suvacho”).

My name “Norman” was given to me from my grandfather, who came to Denmark from Yorkshire. I feel close to this ancestor and I am grateful to carry his name. “Kjellerup” is a small town in Jylland, Denmark, where my father’s clan emigrated from, settling in Copenhagen during the Industrial Revolution. And “Suvaco” was the name given to me when I ordained as a Buddhist monk in Thailand. It means “beautiful speech”. I can’t say I’ll ever live up to it, but the name stuck and many friends call me by that name. It is a good reminder to keep practicing Dharma.

In this karmic round, I entered the world in December 1966, in Copenhagen, Denmark. Although danish by ancestry, I did my schooling in Italy but lived almost 30 years in the UK. During my life I also lived in Switzerland, Italy, China and Thailand. I grew up exposed to various cultures, smells, languages. If anything, I feel myself as European, although the years living in China and as a Buddhist monastic in Thailand have profoundly shaped me. I now live in Christianshavn, a beautiful area of Copenhagen right by the sea. The light, the birds and the water are some of the beings other than human, I am very close to.

The many shapes I took in this life include a punk rock drummer, conscientious objector, Buddhist monk, social worker among homeless, environmental activist.