Essays by Peter Prevos

The Chinese Joss House in Bendigo is the only remaining of four Chinese temples that were built during the gold rush in the middle of the nineteenth century. The Chinese name for the Joss House is `Big Gold Mountain Temple´, referring to the mining activities of the people that built it.

The central feature of the front Entrance Chamber is an altar with a figure of Confucius, flanked by two wooden panels with poems in Chinese script.

To the right of the entrance is a little niche, containing a statue of the Door Guardian, Mun Dei.

This hall is dedicated to the memory of Ancestors. The altar consists of racks with three commemorative tablets to the deceased. Originally there were hundreds of memorials but vandals destroyed most of them. On the left and right of the altar are wooden panels with Chinese proverbs. On the left: "If you do good to others, they will do good to you" and to the right: "Don't bear false witness"