Largest Tibetan Buddhist temple in Australia

The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion is a huge Buddhist monument near Bendigo in central Victoria, Australia. The idea for building the stupa came from Lama Yeshe and after his death, Lama Zopa Rinpoche decided to model the stupa (kumbum) on the Great Stupa of Gyantse which is 600 years old. When completed, the stupa's exterior will be an exact replica of the Great Stupa of Gyantse which is 50 metres (160 ft) high and its four sides will each be 50 metres (160 ft) long, making it one of the largest Buddhist monuments in the Western world. The interior has teaching rooms, a central temple, a library and 80 ornate shrine rooms. It houses the 2.5 metre Jade Buddha for Universal Peace statue, the world’s largest gem-quality jade Buddha statue. There is also vast collection of Asian sacred relics and statues on display at the stupa's exhibition centre and the outside grounds. Buddhists say that viewing the stupa will help purify the mind. It was indeed a very peaceful place and we thoroughly enjoyed spending an hour or so here walking around with a lovely tour guide. The guided tour cost nothing but there are donation boxes which we contributed to at the end of the tour.