Just past the regional City of Bendigo in Central Victoria stands The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, the largest stupa outside of Asia. It is a site of spiritual significance and has also become a tourist attraction. Buddhist stupas are reliquaries, so during construction The Great Stupa was filled with many Buddhist relics, mantras and precious objects. Today, visitors can walk among displays of relics, including those of the Buddha and his disciples. The Great Stupa also houses sacred statues and paintings (thangkas), notably the world’s largest 2.7metre tall Jade Buddha statue, and a 20x20m Kalachakra mandala denoting world peace on the ceiling.ⁱ 

Adjacent to The Great Stupa is the Tibetan Gelugpa Buddhist Atisha Centre, the Thubten Shedup Ling  Monastery, and the Majig Labdron Nunnery. All are members of The Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition, a global network founded by Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, with many centres established in and beyond Australia since the mid-1970s. Lama Yeshe seeded the idea to build The Great Stupa and adjacent complex in 1981. Some 10 years later Lama Zopa suggested it be a replica of the 15th century Great Stupa of Gyantse in Tibet, built to the exacting standards of cosmological design and contemporary structural engineering, 50 metres square at the base, and 50 metres high. The Great Stupa was devised to inspire peace and harmony for 1,000 years to come.ⁱⁱ 

Besides hosting teachings by prominent Buddhists, such as His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and ceremonies primarily for Tibetan Buddhist practitioners, The Great Stupa welcomes all people. The gardens that encircle the stupa include an interdenominational Peace Park, where the community hosts the annual Illumin8 Festival of Light, at Vesak, and a Vegecareian Festival, with sustainable food and special blessings for animal companions. There is also a vegetarian StupaView café on site.ⁱⁱⁱ  

By Sue Smith and Anna Halafoff