Paper short abstract:

This paper analyses a large Buddhist stupa currently under construction in Australia as a "contact zone" (Pratt 1992), a site of transcultural contact and transformation. I consider the ways in which this object has the potential to re-materialise certain social relations in the region.

Paper long abstract:

This paper investigates how a particular item of monumental material culture exerts spiritual and social agency in a cross-cultural setting. My subject is a 43.2-metre high Tibetan Buddhist stupa (a monumental reliquary that in this case also serves as a temple) being built near Bendigo in southern Australia. Considering the stupa site as a kind of transcultural "contact zone" (Pratt 1992), I analyse some of the social processes and dynamics involved in the planning and early construction phase. While the stupa's makers aspire to effect radical spiritual transformation upon "all sentient beings," the literally concrete structure also has unanticipated consequences in the mundane world. Exploring the limitations of theories about of the social agency of things (e.g., Gell 1998) with regard to cross-cultural situations, I argue that while this concrete religious monument could effect changes in Australian multiculturalism, its presence could also reinforce power relations that need challenging (cf Hage 1998).