The Christmas Island Mahayana Buddhist Society complex, founded in the early 1990s in Settlement, includes two Buddhist temples dedicated to the bodhisattvas Di Zang and Guan Yin. The complex is on the site of two respectfully repurposed earlier temples, dedicated to patron deities of Machinery, Chiyou, and Carpentry, LaBan. It also has a teaching hall, with a statue of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara.ⁱ A large bodhi tree in its garden, gifted in 1995 to the community by Ajahn Brahm, prominent Buddhist teacher and Abbot of the Thai Forest tradition Bodhinyana Monastery in Serpentine, Western Australia. Adjacent to the complex is the Chinese Cultural and Heritage Museum, which includes artefacts from the original Christmas Island temples, including a statue of Guan Yin. Many bodhi trees surround the complex on the cliff behind it and across the street, overlooking the ocean.ⁱⁱ 

The Christmas Island Mahayana Buddhist Society has a close relationship with Bodhinyana and the Buddhist Society of Western Australia. Bhantes Cunda and Bodhidhaja held a retreat there in 2024, and visited again for Vesak celebrations in 2026.ⁱⁱⁱ The Society also hosts regular visits from Mahayana Buddhist teachers and monastics from Singapore.  

The Christmas Island Buddhist community celebrates a number of festivals, including Chinese New Year, Qing Ming, and the Hungry Ghost festival. Christmas Island has around fifteen working temples, Daoist and Buddhist, and also has two of the oldest Chinese cemeteries in Australia, and many sacred bodhi trees.^iv  

By Anna Halafoff and Sue Smith 

Keywords:  

Buddhist temples, Chinese temples, Chinese New Year, Guan Yin (Bodhisattva), bodhi trees