Nan Tien Temple: The Southern Hemisphere's Largest Buddhist Temple

Nan Tien Temple, the Buddhist temple complex established by the Fo Guang Shan organisation in Berkeley, south of Wollongong, in 1995 and recognised as the largest Buddhist temple in the southern hemisphere, provides the Illawarra with a religious and cultural landmark of international significance that attracts the Buddhist devotees, the interfaith visitors, the meditation program participants, and the tourists who come to experience the traditional Chinese Buddhist architecture and the peaceful grounds of one of the most visually impressive religious complexes in Australia. The temple's name translates as "paradise on earth," reflecting the ambition of the Fo Guang Shan order to create a centre of Buddhist practice and teaching that the Chinese-Australian community and the broader Australian public could access.

The temple grounds, encompassing the main shrine hall, the pilgrimage path with its Buddha images, the memorial pagodas, and the international Buddhist museum that presents Buddhist art and history, provide the complete sacred complex that the traditional Chinese Buddhist temple design requires. The grounds' landscaping, the ornamental ponds, and the views across the Illawarra plain to the escarpment create the setting of natural beauty that traditional Buddhist precepts associate with appropriate conditions for contemplation and practice.

The Nan Tien Institute, the higher education institution established on the temple grounds, provides the academic programs in Buddhist philosophy, health and wellbeing, and the arts and culture that Buddhist tradition informs, allowing the temple complex to serve the education function that Buddhist institutions have historically provided alongside their religious and community roles. The Institute's programs attract students from across Australia and internationally who want the academic engagement with Buddhist thought in the integrated environment of a working Buddhist temple.

The temple's vegetarian restaurant and the pilgrim accommodation that the complex provides allow visitors to extend the Nan Tien experience beyond the day visit and to participate in the community life of the temple in the way that the residential retreat and the overnight stay enables. The retreat programs that the temple runs throughout the year, including the meditation intensives and the mindfulness programs that the secular wellbeing market accesses through the temple's non-sectarian program, provide the income that sustains the temple's broader community and educational functions.

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