Great Stupa lights

BENDIGO’S Great Stupa of Universal Compassion will host its ILLUMIN8 Festival of Light and Peace on Saturday 18 May.

Tickets are available now for the event which will run from 4pm to 8pm on the property at 25 Sandhurst Town Road, Myers Flat.

ILLUMIN8 celebrates peace and harmony inspired by Buddha’s life. It commemorates the birth, enlightenment, and death of Buddha according to the Tibetan festival of Saga Dawa.

It is a family-friendly event with light installations, cultural performances, food stalls and family entertainment and more.

Festival-goers will be able to wander through the Peace Park and interact with different light sculptures, take in cultural performances, sample vegetarian and vegan food, participate in Buddhist ceremonies, and purge negative emotions through a ‘burning the bad’ activity.

Activities will culminate in a spectacular fireworks display.

Great Stupa marketing and events manager Matthew Griffin said ILLUMIN8 has grown to be an enormously popular event, both for Bendigo people and visitors, and usually always sells out.

“If people want to get their tickets, I wouldn’t wait too long,” Mr Griffin said.

Of the festival’s popularity, Mr Griffin said it had become a major event for Bendigo, both for local people and visitors.

“It’s one of our showcase festivals for the year; it’s a major event on our calendar,” he said. “We just have a really fun night.”

The festival has been held annually since 2013, apart from the 2020 and 2021 COVID interruptions.

A stupa is the most sacred building in Buddhism, symbolising the enlightened mind and the path to enlightenment.

The Great Stupa being built on the Bendigo property is the same design and size as the Gyantse Stupa in Tibet. At 50 metres square at the base and almost 50 metres in height, it will be the largest stupa in the western world when it is finished.

Mr Griffin said the ‘burning the bad’ ceremony would feature a new monster this year, which stood taller than two metres and was already in place.

He said construction of the Great Stupa was basically finished, with some internal decorating work taking place now. Similar external decorative work is next. Ticket sales are limited to 1200 and can be bought at stupa.org.au/illumin8