Hamburg the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, is the second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and 7th largest city in the European Union with a population of over 1.84 million. One of Germany's 16 federal states, it is surrounded by Schleswig-Holstein to the north and Lower Saxony to the south; the city's metropolitan region is home to more than five million people. Hamburg lies on two of its tributaries, the River Alster and the River Bille; the official name reflects Hamburg's history as a member of the medieval Hanseatic League and a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire. Before the 1871 Unification of Germany, it was a sovereign city state, before 1919 formed a civic republic headed constitutionally by a class of hereditary grand burghers or Hanseaten. Beset by disasters such as the Great Fire of Hamburg, North Sea flood of 1962 and military conflicts including World War II bombing raids, the city has managed to recover and emerge wealthier after each catastrophe. Hamburg is Europe's third-largest port.

Major regional broadcaster NDR, the printing and publishing firm Gruner + Jahr and the newspapers Der Spiegel and Die Zeit are based in the city. Hamburg is the seat of Germany's oldest stock exchange and the world's oldest merchant bank, Berenberg Bank. Media, commercial and industrial firms with significant locations in the city include multinationals Airbus, Blohm + Voss, Aurubis and Unilever; the city hosts specialists in world economics and international law, including consular and diplomatic missions as the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the EU-LAC Foundation, the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, multipartite international political conferences and summits such as Europe and China and the G20. Both former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and Angela Merkel, German chancellor since 2005, were born in Hamburg; the city is a major domestic tourist destination. It ranked 18th in the world for livability in 2016; the Speicherstadt and Kontorhausviertel were declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO in 2015.

Hamburg is a major European science and education hub, with several universities and institutions. Among its most notable cultural venues are the Laeiszhalle concert halls, it paved the way for bands including The Beatles. Hamburg is known for several theatres and a variety of musical shows. St. Pauli's Reeperbahn is among the best-known European entertainment districts. Hamburg is at a sheltered natural harbour on the southern fanning-out of the Jutland Peninsula, between Continental Europe to the south and Scandinavia to the north, with the North Sea to the west and the Baltic Sea to the northeast, it is on the River Elbe at its confluence with the Bille. The city centre is around the Binnenalster and Außenalster, both formed by damming the River Alster to create lakes; the islands of Neuwerk, Scharhörn, Nigehörn, 100 kilometres away in the Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park, are part of the city of Hamburg. The neighborhoods of Neuenfelde, Cranz and Finkenwerder are part of the Altes Land region, the largest contiguous fruit-producing region in Central Europe.

Neugraben-Fischbek has Hamburg's highest elevation, the Hasselbrack at 116.2 metres AMSL. Hamburg borders the states of Lower Saxony. Hamburg has an oceanic climate, influenced by its proximity to the coast and maritime influences that originate over the Atlantic Ocean; the location in the north of Germany provides extremes greater than typical marine climates, but in the category due to the mastery of the western standards. Nearby wetlands enjoy a maritime temperate climate; the amount of snowfall has varied in recent decades. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, heavy snowfall sometimes occurred, the winters of recent years have been less cold, with snowfall just a few days per year; the warmest months are June and August, with high temperatures of 20.1 to 22.5 °C. The coldest are December and February, with low temperatures of −0.3 to 1.0 °C. Claudius Ptolemy reported the first name for the vicinity as Treva; the name Hamburg comes from the first permanent building on the site, a castle which the Emperor Charlemagne ordered constructed in AD 808.

It rose on rocky terrain in a marsh between the River Alster and the River Elbe as a defence against Slavic incursion, acquired the name Hammaburg, burg meaning castle or fort. The origin of the Hamma term remains uncertain. In 834, Hamburg was designated as the seat of a bishopric; the first bishop, became known as the Apostle of the North. Two years Hamburg was united with Bremen as the Bishopric of Hamburg-Bremen. Hamburg occupied several times. In 845, 600 Viking ships sailed up the River Elbe and destroyed Hamburg, at that time a town of around 500 inhabitants. In 1030, King Mieszko II Lambert of Poland burned down the city. Valdemar II of Denmark raided and occupied Hamburg in 1201 and in 1214; the Black Death killed at least 60% of the population in 1350. Hamburg experienced several great fires in the medieval period. In 1189, by imperial charter, Frederick I "Barbarossa" granted Hamburg the status of a Free Imperial City and tax-free access up the Lower Elbe into the North Sea. In 1265, an forged letter was presented to or by the Rath of Hamburg.

This charter, along with H

Winston Damarillo is a Filipino-American businessman. Winston Damarillo was born in the Philippines, he completed a BS in industrial and mechanical engineering from the De La Salle University in 1990. He moved to the US, went to work at Intel in Hillsboro, Oregon in 1992. After engineering and sales positions, he moved to Intel Capital, which invested in software companies. Damarillo became an venture capitalist, he sold companies such as: Gluecode Software, an open source software company, acquired by IBM in 2005, acquired by Iona Technologies in 2007, Webtide, acquired by Intalio in 2009. Damarillo became the chief strategy officer of the PLDT group in May 2015. At the time he was executive chairman of Amihan Global Strategies

Ajahn Pasanno is the most senior Western disciple of Ven. Ajahn Chah in the United States, most senior in the world after Ajahn Sumedho and Ajahn Khemadhammo. For many years he was the abbot of Wat Pah Nanachat International Forest Monastery in Northeast Thailand. In the late 1990s, Ajahn Pasanno moved to California to head the new Abhayagiri Monastery. With more than 40 years as a bhikkhu, Ajahn Pasanno has been instrumental in training many monks in Thailand and the United States and has been supportive of training for women. On December 5, 2015, at the Temple of the Emerald Buddha in Bangkok, Ajahn Pasanno received the honorary ecclesiastical title “Chao Khun” and name “Phra Bodhinyanavidesa” from the Crown Prince of Thailand, on behalf of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej; the title “Chao Khun” is given periodically to monks in the Thai tradition who have distinguished themselves with their contributions to the monastic tradition. This high honor is significant as Western monks are awarded this special recognition.

Ajahn Pasanno was born on July 26, 1949, in The Pas, Canada. In 1972 he finished his studies at the University of Winnipeg and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in History. A year in 1973, he travelled to Asia through Turkey, Iran and Pakistan, to India and Thailand, where Ajahn Pasanno travelled to a meditation monastery in Chiang Mai, he enrolled in a month of meditation retreat. In January 4, 1974, at the age of 24, Ajahn Pasanno took ordination at Wat Pleng Vipassana in Bangkok, Thailand with Venerable Phra Khru Ñāṇasirivatana as preceptor. During his first year as a monk he was taken by his teacher to meet Ajahn Chah, with whom he asked to be allowed to stay and train. One of the early residents of Wat Pah Nanachat, Ajahn Pasanno became its abbot in his ninth year. During Ajahn Pasanno’s tenure as abbot, Wat Pah Nanachat developed increasing in size from 40 acres to 140 acres, Ajahn Pasanno initiated an extensive tree-planting project that made Wat Pah Nanachat a model site for reforestation with the Department of Forestry in Ubon Ratchathani.

In 1990, Ajahn Pasanno established Poo Jom Gom Hermitage in Ampher Khong Chiam, Ubon Ratchathani Province as a forest retreat facility for Wat Pah Nanachat. One year he established Dtao Dum Hermitage inside Sai Yok National Park in Kanchanaburi Province as another forest retreat for facility Buddhist monks. In addition to their function as places of meditation practice and monastic training, they help to protect the surrounding forests and natural environment and thus have received support from the Department of Forestry and the Thai military; as abbot of Wat Pah Nanachat, Ajahn Pasanno was involved in community development work, helping villages to develop projects that helped village harmony and livelihood, he started organizations that worked with villagers in northeast Thailand to protect areas of forest. In 1991, he helped to draw a group of people together in the Ubon Ratchathani region who were interested in forest conservation and community development, formally established as the Nature Care Foundation in 1992 and continues to work for the benefit of the community, facilitating environmental education, cooperation between governmental and non-governmental organizations, the initiation of projects to support sustainable livelihood.

Ajahn Pasanno ordained many trees in order to protect them, putting robes around them, holding traditional ceremonies, chanting for the protection of the forest. After Ven. Ajahn Chah became ill and died, Ajahn Pasanno was part of the steering committee for administering to the needs of Wat Nong Pah Pong and its branch monasteries, which at the time numbered over 200. In 1992 and 1993, Ajahn Pasanno was directly involved in helping the preparation and organization of the royal funeral of Ajahn Chah at Wat Nong Pah Pong, Ampher Warin, Ubon Ratchathani Province. Over a period of ten days for the funeral there was Dhamma practice. Over a million people passed through the monastery during that time. On the day of the cremation, between 300,000 and 400,000 people were in attendance. Spending 24 years living in Thailand, Ajahn Pasanno became a well-known and respected monk and Dhamma teacher. Prior to leaving Thailand, he was appointed an official preceptor with authority to preside over ordinations of sāmaṇeras and bhikkhus.

Ajahn Pasanno moved to California on New Year's Eve of 1997 to share the abbotship of Abhayagiri Monastery, Redwood Valley, with Ajahn Amaro. In addition to leading the community at Abhayagiri, his spiritual activities shortly after arriving in California ranged from traveling to San Quentin Prison in order to provide spiritual counseling for Jaturun "Jay" Siripongs, executed on February 9, 1999, to leading monks from Abhayagiri to visit, make offerings, chant for Julia Butterfly Hill, living in a 1500-year-old California Redwood tree in order to protect it from Pacific Lumber Company loggers. With Ajahn Pasanno’s help and spiritual guidance, three lay followers, Barbara Backstrand, Chris Robson, founded Portland Friends of the Dhamma in 2000. In 2010, the Pacific Hermitage, a branch of Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery, was founded in the Columbia River Gorge along a forested stretch of White Salmon's Jewett Creek with the support of Ajahn Pasanno, who encouraged Ajahn Sudanto to lead the effort to establish the Pacific Hermitage.

In February, 2010, Ajahn Amaro accepted an invitation to serve as abbot of Amaravati Buddhist Monastery in England. After Ajahn Amaro's departure on Jul