Overview of the role of Buddhism in Australia
In
Australia
,
Buddhism
is a minority
religion
. According to the 2016 census, 2.4 percent of the total population of
Australia
identified as Buddhist.
[1]
It was also the
fastest-growing religion
by percentage, having increased its number of adherents by 79 percent between the 1996 and 2001 censuses.
[2]
The highest percentage of Buddhists in Australia is present in
Christmas Island
, where Buddhists constitute 18.1% of the total population according to the 2016 Census.
[3]
Buddhism is the fourth largest religion in the country after
Christianity
,
Islam
and
Hinduism
.
Demographics
[
edit
]
The change in demography of Buddhism in Australia is given
[4]
[
circular reference
]
:
Year
|
Percent
|
Increase
|
1986
|
0.5%
|
?
|
1996
|
1.1%
|
0.6%
|
2006
|
2.1%
|
1.0%
|
2011
|
2.5%
|
0.4%
|
2016
|
2.4%
|
0.1%
|
2021
|
2.4%
|
0%
|
2011 census data showed the Buddhist affiliated population had grown from 418,749 to 528,977 people, an increase of 20.8%.
[5]
As Australia's population was estimated at 21.5 million at the time, according to the same census, the Buddhist population may be estimated at 2.46% of the population.
According to the
2016 census
, the Buddhist population numbered 563,677 individuals, of whom 33% live in Greater
Sydney
, 30% in Greater
Melbourne
, and 8% each in Greater
Brisbane
and Greater
Perth
. The states and territories with the highest proportion of Buddhists are
Victoria
(3.07%) and
New South Wales
(2.78%), whereas those with the lowest are
Queensland
(1.51%) and
Tasmania
(0.79%).
[6]
The highest percentage of Buddhists are present in
Christmas Island
, where Buddhism constitute 18.1% of the total population according to the 2016 Census. Buddhism was the largest religion in
Christmas island
till 2013, later Islam become the dominant religion there when Malays become biggest ethnic group in the island.
[3]
History
[
edit
]
The first clear example of Buddhist settlement in Australia dates to 1858. However, there has been speculation from some
anthropologists
that there may have been contact hundreds of years earlier; in the book
Aboriginal Men of High Degree
, A.P. Elkin cites what he believes is evidence that traders from
Indonesia
may have brought fleeting contact with
Buddhism
and
Hinduism
to areas near modern-day
Dampier
.
[7]
Elkin interpreted a link between
Indigenous Australian
culture and Buddhist ideas such as
reincarnation
.
[7]
He argued this link could have been brought through contact with
Macassan
traders.
[7]
There was also speculation due to reports of
Chinese
relics appearing in northern Australia dating to the 15th century, although it may have been brought much later through trade rather than earlier exploration.
In 1851, the first large group of Chinese to come to Australia came as part of the
gold rush
, most of them staying briefly for prospecting purposes rather than mass migration. In 1856, a temple was established in
South Melbourne
by the secular
Sze Yap
group. This temple was also used for
Taoism
,
Confucianism
, various cultural deities and even
astrological
activities. However, no clerics from China ever came to Australia. While numbers of worshipers at the
See Yup temple
in South Melbourne varied over time (primarily due to the
White Australia Policy
), it has been in continuous use as a temple ever since.
[8]
The first Buddhist group to arrive in Australia was a troupe of acrobats and jugglers from
Japan
who toured in 1867.
[
citation needed
]
More arrived throughout the century, mostly involved in the pearling industry in northern Australia, reaching an estimate of 3600 on
Thursday Island
, and also in
Broome
and
Darwin, Northern Territory
.
[
citation needed
]
The first
Sinhalese
Buddhists from
Sri Lanka
arrived in 1870 to work in
sugarcane
plantations. A community was believed to exist on Thursday Island in 1876. In 1882, a group of 500 left
Colombo
for
Queensland
, mostly in
Mackay
. The oldest remaining structure attesting to the establishment of Buddhism in Australia are two
Bodhi Trees
planted on Thursday Island in the 1890s, although the temple which once stood there no longer exists.
During the 20th century, the number of Buddhists gradually declined due to emigration and a lack of immigration caused by the
White Australia Policy
.
In 1891, the American Buddhist, Colonel
Henry Steel Olcott
, who was the co-founder of
Theosophical Society
came to Australia and participated in a lecture series, which led to a greater awareness of Buddhism in small circles of mainly upper-class society. One of the members of the Theosophical Society was future
Australian Prime Minister
Alfred Deakin
, who had spent three months in
India
and Sri Lanka in 1890 and wrote a book which discussed spiritual matters, including Buddhism.
The first instance of a monk arriving in Australia was in 1910, when U Sasana Dhaja, born E.H. Stevenson in
Yarmouth
, arrived from
Burma
. Over the years, various monks visited Australia, but it was not until the 1970s that a resident monk (named Venerable Somaloka) arrived from Sri Lanka.
The first specific Buddhist group, the Buddhist Study Group Melbourne, was formed in
Melbourne
in 1938 by Len Bullen, but it collapsed during the
Second World War
. The Buddhist Society of Victoria was formed in 1953, and in 1956 the Buddhist Society of New South Wales was formed. From the 1950s until the 1970s, the Buddhist Societies were lay organizations which self-discussed Buddhism.
In the late 1970s, Buddhism began to become more widespread, mainly due to immigration from
South East Asia
following the
Vietnam War
, as well as the spread to Western countries of
Tibetan Buddhism
, led by figures such as
Lama Yeshe
, who established religious institutions with resident monks, and
Sogyal Rinpoche
, during the 1980s, the founder of the Rigpa organization. This was supplemented by further immigration from
Asia
in the proceeding decades.
In 2009 in Australia four women received
bhikkhuni
ordination as Theravada nuns, the first time such ordination had occurred in Australia.
[9]
It was performed in Perth, Australia, on 22 October 2009 at Bodhinyana Monastery. Abbess Vayama together with Venerables
Nirodha
, Seri, and Hasapanna were ordained as Bhikkhunis by a dual Sangha act of Bhikkhus and Bhikkhunis in full accordance with the Pali Vinaya.
[10]
Buddhism used to have the
highest percentage growth
of all religions in Australia, having had an increase of 79 percent in the number of adherents from the 1996 to the 2001 census. Since the 1986 census, the number of adherents has increased from 80,387 to around 370,345 in 2001. However, it started to decline from 2.5 percent in 2011 to 2.4 percent in 2016, although there is still an increase of about 34,700 Buddhists in the number of adherents.
Buddhist temples
[
edit
]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Croucher, Paul (1989). A History of Buddhism in Australia, Kensington, N.S.W. : New South Wales University Press
- Halafoff, Anna; Fitzpatrick, Ruth; Lam, Kim (2012).
Buddhism in Australia: An Emerging Field of Study
, Journal of Global Buddhism 13, 9-25
- Daniel A. Metraux, "Soka Gakkai in Australia" in Nova Religio (8.1, July 2004).
- Metraux, Daniel A. (2003).
The Soka Gakkai in Australia: Globalization of a new Japanese Religion
, Journal of Global Buddhism 4, 108-143
- Spuler, Michelle (2000). Characteristics of Buddhism in Australia, Journal of Contemporary Religion 15 (1), 29-44
- Spuler, Michelle (2002).
The Development of Buddhism in Australia and New Zealand
. In: Prebish, Charles S., and Baumann, Martin, (eds.) Westward Dharma: Buddhism beyond Asia. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, USA, pp. 139?151
- Barker, Michelle (2007).
Investments in Religious Capital: An explorative case study of Australian Buddhists
Archived
22 March 2017 at the
Wayback Machine
, Journal of Global Buddhism 8, 65-80
External links
[
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]
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Associated states
of New Zealand
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Dependencies
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