Temple of the Holy Triad

Temple of the Holy Triad is the first Buddhist practice site in Brisbane.

The introduction of Buddhist practice into Brisbane is a very recent event in the 2,500 year history of Buddhism, with the first record of a Buddhist presence here dating from the 1880s.

Among Brisbane’s Chinese population was a small group who identified themselves as Buddhists. They gathered at Brisbane’s first temple, the Temple of the Holy Triad, which was built at Breakfast Creek in the mid 1880s and remains on its original site. Religious practice at this temple was not exclusively Buddhist, but a blend of Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism. By the 1900s, the number of Chinese people in Brisbane and the practice of Buddhism had declined.

In recent years, people’s contact with Buddhism has increased through visits of prominent Buddhist teachers, most notably His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the growth in spiritual and tourist travel to Asia and the influential profile created by Hollywood celebrities like Richard Gere. The growing appeal of Buddhist philosophy and mediation in the changing world has seen the number of Buddhist organizations in Brisbane increase by 10 times – from four in 1982, to 40 in