peace pagoda...

...and this Nepalese Peace Pagoda was part of the Brisbane Expo in 1988.
World Fairs/ Expositions originated in 1851 in London at The Crystal Palace and have continued on in various forms and themes (industry agriculture art and culture to name but four) around the world and Brisbane hosted Australia's only 'Expo'.

I was lucky enough to be there for four days andit was truly remarkable experience.
The Nepalese Peace Pagoda was handcrafted in its entirety over a two year period from Terai timber from the southern jungles of Nepal – the work of 160 families.
When the Expo ended all the major structures were dismantled but the Peace Pagoda remained .
After an international bidding war the pagoda remained in Brisbane and relocated to its rainforest grove on Southbank.
Glorious inspiring and surprisingly peaceful despite the constant traffic of visitors, bell ringers and selfie posers!


Most (though not all) peace pagodas built since World War II have been built under the guidance of Nichidatsu Fujii (1885–1985), a Buddhist monk from Japan and founder of the Nipponzan-Myōhōji Buddhist Order. Fujii was greatly inspired by his meeting with Mahatma Gandhi in 1931 and decided to devote his life to promoting non-violence. In 1947, he began constructing Peace Pagodas as shrines to world peace.[1] Peace Pagodas were built as a symbol of peace in Japanese cities including Hiroshima and Nagasaki where the atomic bombs took the lives of over 150,000 people, almost all of whom were civilian, at the end of World War II.