We arrived at a free camp outside Bendigo on 27/02/2020 after a night at a Melbourne caravan park to break up the journey and restock.
We are very glad to get away from Melbourne; the roads are not great when towing a 9.2mtr van. We only had a day in Bendigo but we both loved it. Bendigo is a lovely country town with some very grand buildings, a huge catholic cathedral and a man-made lake (Lake Weeroona) that we had lunch overlooking.
We then headed to The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion 15 minutes drive from Bendigo. I don’t think we will see something like this again on our travels. A stupa (also known as a pagoda) is the most sacred building in Buddhism (a stupa symbolises the enlightened mind and the path to enlightenment. It is also a reliquary to house holy relics of the Buddha and other highly realised beings.)
The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, being built near Bendigo Australia, is 50 metres square at its base and nearly 50 metres high (the largest stupa in the Western World). Unfortunately it is estimated to take a further 34 years to complete but the tour (run by a wonderful Buddhist monk) gives you a sense of what it will be like and the gardens are taking shape.
Inside there are already many relics including The Jade Buddha for Universal Peace which is carved from a rare boulder of translucent jade (“Polar Pride”) which was discovered in Canada in the year 2000. The Jade Buddha is 2.5 metres high and sits on an alabaster throne of close to 1.6 metres high. The Jade Buddha itself weighs around 4 tonne and is considered to be priceless.
We came away feeling very peaceful. See https://stupa.org.au/great-stupa/ for more information.
From Bendigo we head towards Ballarat on 28/02/2020 for 2 nights at a free camp on Lake Burrumbeet.
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One response to “Bendigo (WK 16)”
great reports P and A the temple looks fascinating . there a great bush poem that goes…as I walked down to Burrumbeet I met a man with funny feet…cant remember the rest… written by C J Dennis …part of history there.