Artisans from Punjab were enlisted to create the sculptures and domes for the Guru Nanak Sikh Temple
Pamela See finds creative work in devotional sites of Buddhist, Sikh, Catholic, Biniji and Mungguy peoples.
One of the ways my family expressed their “Chineseness” while I was growing up in South-East Queensland during the 1980s was by visiting temples. Although my paternal grandparents were followers of Guanyin, prior to the establishment of the Buddhist Chung Tian Temple at Underwood they paid respects to Lao Tzu at the Ching Chung Taoist Temple at Deacon. Priority was placed on making an offering to a deity within a sacred space. Its identity appeared to be of little consequence. This ritual was, in the case of my immediate family, reserved for special occasions. My extended family have their own altars at home to worship with regularity.
The sanctification of these spaces, in both private and public contexts, appears to require the considered placement of purpose-crafted objects. Their providence may reflect their provenance. At most basic, there is an appropriation of regionally specific aesthetics. However, communities may go to lengths to both acquire and conserve artifacts deemed authentic by where they originated if not who made them.
A proliferation of this process may occur on grounds hallowed by their presence. Like many Chinese girls, I received training in papercutting at a temple. We made them for visitors during the Lunar New Year. In an Australian Catholic equivalent, the Abbotsford Convent became renowned for the lace stitched by its young residents. Objects distributed, if not crafted, in these sanctified spaces are imbued with their significance. Transcending religious applications is a principle that may be applied to other cultural facilities like art galleries and museums.
Projecting Buddhist Beliefs and Taiwanese Culture at Chung Tian Temple
The artifacts at the Chung Tian Temple were crafted in Taiwan
September 2024 saw the commencement of the final stage of development for the Chung Tian Temple at Underwood. An inscription on a large suspended bronze bell hints at the projected completion date. It may be translated into English as:
Cast in 1997 A.D.
Australia Brisbane.
Middle Heaven.
Buddha.
30 Years.
The process, which began in 1989, will conclude with the construction of a main hall housing three monumentally scaled statues. It is one of eleven antipodean Fo Guang Shan Buddhist temples, an order that was founded by Venerable Master Hsing Yun in Taiwan during the 1960s. The Jiangsu-born monk was ordained in Nanjing and left the mainland in 1949.
Appearing to be a keen advocate of the arts, one-stroke calligraphy is among the ways his beliefs take a physical form. Within his Southeast Queensland temple, exhibition halls filled with contemporary art made in a diversity of media complement the traditionally forged and carved artifacts in the surrounding grounds. When asked of their origin, “Taiwan” is the response from the nuns.
Although a plaque indicating the names of donors was located on the back of one Guanyin bodhisattva, a majority of the statues do not carry marks identifying their place of origin or maker. Fo Guang Shan has been associated with Sheng Kuang Sculpture, an award-winning fabricator specialising in large bronze buddhas. The wealth of exterior stone statues could reflect the eastern Taiwan town of Hualien being a centre for sculpture and religion. The deposits of marble have been estimated to exceed 300 million tons. It is home to over a dozen temples and shrines, including the Longshan Temple and the Gangtiangong Temple, which both pay homage to Guanyin.
In the main exhibition hall of the Chung Tian Temple, a cast bronze sculpture of a Guanyin bodhisattva stamped by celebrated Taiwanese Buddhist sculptor Fa Chengxian takes pride of place. A member of the congregation suggested that the surrounding framed examples of calligraphy by Venerable Master Hsing Yun might be more affordable. One of the nuns extrapolated in saying that all proceeds would assist in the expansion of the temple.
Raising a Growing Community at the Guru Nanak Sikh Temple
On a Phulkari, inside the Guru Nanak Sikh Temple, weaponary is positioned to form the symbol “Khandar”
While equally embracing the arts, the congregation of the Guru Nanak Temple appear to retribute donations with consummate chorals and cuisine. In 2019, the site received an upgrade, including the addition of the Sikh Heritage Museum of Australia. Dubbed the “Raj Mahal”, the new Taj Mahal-inspired temple building was designed by the celebrated Coffs Harbour-based architect Treavor Reddacliff. Artisans from Punjab were engaged to cast the towering temple domes. They also created homages to Hari Singh Nalwa and Mai Bhago. Life-sized sculptures of the revered warriors on horseback flank the front gate. On a Phulkari, an embroidered textile from Punjab, a variety of swords and a shield are positioned to form the symbol “Khandar”.
Music is integral to prayer, reflecting the belief that creation results from a single vibration. Displayed in the museum are an exquisite array of instruments, like a tanpura, and weapons, like a pech kabaj. These examples of the equipment engaged by Sikhs are laid out and labelled for the lay. They are widely produced in Amristar, a commercial centre that was walled when the British annexed Punjab in 1849.
The colonialisation of the agricultural region catalysed a dispersal of the Sikh, with Queensland and New South Wales among the destinations. The diaspora of the nineteenth-century arrivals established a community in Woolgoolga. Two seasonal sugarcane cutters in Grafton were invited by a businessman to work on his banana plantation. The prospect of year-round work drew their compatriots, who would collectively buy farming land. Wives began arriving in Woolgoolga with the relaxation of immigration restrictions during the 1960s. The thriving community built a Guru Nanak Temple in 1968. This first iteration was also the first Sikh temple in Australia.
In the museum, original paintings by local artist Darren Bromell illustrate the agricultural contribution of the Sikh farmers. They complement reproductions of paintings depicting significant religious figures. Included in this is a framed reproduction of G.S Sohan Singh’s Guru Angad Dev Ji. The didactic panel describes how this disciple of Guru Nanak developed a written form of Punjab called Gurmukhi.
Of the individual makers, only the identities of the Australian-based artist and architect have been recognised. Nonetheless, value appears placed on the objects being manufactured in Punjab or crafted in Australia by Punjabi artisans. They assist in articulating ancient Sikh traditions from the subcontinent. The contributions of the Australian practitioners demonstrate contemporary adaptations of Sikh principles in the Central Coast of New South Wales.
Capturing Periods of Development at the Sacred Galleries of Ubirr
It is believed that many of the paintings at Ubirr were created by Mimi, including this thylacine
By contrast, the evolution of a sacred site, where the Biniji, Mungguy and Burrungkuy peoples had painted for millennia, ceased in the 1980s. The United Nations heritage-listed Ubirr is situated in the Northern Territory. Its augmented rockfaces have been dated using “luminesce methods” to be 50,000 years old. Eleven distinct styles have been identified and categorised into three periods: Pre-Estuarine (ca. 400 000 – 6000 BCE), Estuarine (ca. 6000 BCE – 500 CE), and Fresh Water (500 CE – present). Pigments, like red ochre, were applied using a variety of methods from mouth-blown stencilling to brushing using feathers, chewed sticks and hair. Among the most prolific Burrungkuy artists was Nayombolmi, who contributed over a dozen rock paintings to the region during the last decade of his life.
The flora and fauna represented on the rock faces chart significant geological changes to the surrounding landscape. Among the species depicted is a thylacine, which is thought to have been extinct from the Australian mainland for over 2000 years. Described as “x-ray” in appearance because they included internal anatomical features, dozens of plants and animals are depicted in the “Main Gallery”. This “menu” purportedly served educational purposes.
The paintings capture creation myths and convey morals, like the story of the robbing and subsequent revenge of Mabuyu. Garranga’rreli, the Rainbow Serpent, also appears in human form. Some paintings made in the nineteenth century also reflect the European colonisation of the Northern Territory. The Biniji and Mungguy believe that many of the paintings were created by spirits like Mimi, who continue to inhabit the site.
The Evolution of the Abbotsford Convent into an Arts and Cultural Precinct
This altar originated from a workshop run by Alexis Moisseron and sculptor Louis Andre in Angers
The craftspeople who presently occupy the Abbotsford Convent Cultural Precinct may no longer advertently espouse the values of the church. However, the Christian heritage of the Abbotsford Convent is clearly articulated through its infrastructure and artifacts. It was built for the Sisters of the Good Shepherd between 1863 and 1908. An altar was imported from Angers, the region where the Catholic order was founded. It was crafted in a workshop renowned for its ecclesiastic furniture, run by designer Alexis Moisseron and sculptor Louis Andre. The German-born artist Max Kreitmayer contributed a crucifix. After training in anatomy in Munich, he worked as a medical modeller in London before establishing a wax works in Melbourne. Windows were created by James Ferguson and James Urie. The pair were among three Scotsmen from Ayrshire to establish a business in the North of Melbourne during the second half of the nineteenth century. In service of a gothic revival in architecture, they would specialise in medieval stained-glass windows.
Over the next century, the Abbotsford Convent acquired less desirable aspects of its provenance. On one hand, it was described as a refuge for young women with limited material means. However, asylum within its walls was also imposed upon their counterparts, who were deemed to be in moral deficit. The inmates included single mothers and girls removed from their First Nations families. Modelled on the workhouses of Victorian Britain, the sisters oversaw the penance of young women served through prayer and hard labour. Survivors of the lacemaking workshop and commercial laundry describe their experiences as child exploitation.
An article in the Argus in 1907 described the workmanship of the young residents to be “of the highest order”. Their delicate lace and intricate embroidery were applied to tailored dresses, slippers, and veils. Each component of the bridal wear was fashioned onsite. An example of the latter, stitched in 1923, resides in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria. This exponent of Catholic textile production ceased operation in the 1970s.
In the early 2000s, after significant lobbying to save the property from developers, the Victorian State Government gifted the convent to the people. It invested $ 4 million into its redevelopment, with an additional $ 1 million contributed by the City of Yarra. In 2013, Robert Simeoni Architects received a National Architecture Award for their restoration of the Sacred Hearts Chapel. In 2017, Abbotsford Convent was inscribed in the Australian National Heritage List.
The reimagined cultural precinct presently houses over a hundred tenants ranging from writers, within offices in former dorm “cells”, to a Steiner school, run out of St Mary’s. Among the craftspeople who presently occupy the facilities are ceramicists Colin Hopkins and Ilona Topolcsanyi, the proprietors of Cone 11, and textile artists Caitlin Klooger and Lara Camero, who founded Ink & Spindle.
Sanctification Lent through Crafted Objects
The providence of faith-based facilities remains reliant on the provenance of their infrastructure and artifacts. The engagement of appropriate artisans who are able to articulate traditional aesthetics appears essential. A majority of the communities investigated also embraced contemporary practitioners whose work captured evolutions in the ideologies represented. The objects distributed, if not crafted, at these sanctified sites are imbued with their significance. Temples and churches offer visitors sanctification and, in some cases, equipment to sanctify their own spaces. Equivalence may also be found in the museum and gallery sector.
Further Reading
Abbotsford Convent. (n.d.). In Conversation with Ink & Spindle.
Architecture Au. (2013, November 7). 2013 National Architecture Awards: Heritage
Australian Government. (n.d.). Rock Art. Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.
Australian Heritage Database. (2017, August 31). Abbotsford Convent, 1 St Heliers St, Abbotsford, VIC, Australia.
Birx, J.H. (2006). Encyclopedia of Anthropology, Volume 1. Sage.
Coffs Collections. (n.d.). Guru Nanak Sikh Temple in River Street, 1970.
Colligan, M. (2005). Kreitmayer, Maximilian Ludwig (Max) (1830–1906). Australian Dictionary of Biography. Australian National University.
Fo Guang Shan Chung Tian Temple. (n.d.).
Hotham History Project. (2018). Talk – Colonial Victoria’s Stained Glass Craftsmen.
Kjellgren, E. (2000, October). Ubirr (ca.40 000? – present). The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Kakadu National Park. (n.d.). Gumbin.
Lee, J., Goldhahn, J., and May, S. (2022). Nayombolmi (c. 1895–1967). Australian Dictionary of Biography. Australian National University.
Museums Victoria Collections. (n.d.). Stained Glass Window, Probably Ferguson & Urie, circa 1872.
Rolio, J. (2012, September 7). All is in Good Order, Chapel’s Refurbishment is Just Divine.
Sheng Kuang Sculpture. (n.d.).
Woolgoolga and the Indian Connection. (1990, October 14). The Canberra Times, pp.24.
