JOSS HOUSE & TEMPLES

Joss Houses were centres of community life, part places of worship, part places for community gatherings.

'Joss House' was a European name for a Chinese place of worship, association or congregation.

They were found in all goldfields towns with significant Chinese communities.

Some were ancestral temples where specific family groups could commemorate their family or clan.

Others were temples dedicated to folk gods or any of the specific deities worshipped across the goldfields.

A popular and revered deity was Guan-Di (Kwan Gong), the god of war and prosperity. Guan-Di was revered by the three main Chinese religious groups: Confucians, Taoists and Buddhists. Bendigo's Joss House Temple, constructed in the 1870s as part of the Ironbark Chinese Camp, is dedicated to Guan-Di.

Some houses were managed by lodges or regional associations and were more like clubs where members congregated, supported each other and shared cultural practices.

And sometimes a ‘Joss House’ might combine activities of a place of worship and a club.

Chinese Christians and Muslims could be found worshipping on the goldfields with other (Chinese and non-Chinese) adherents of their faith. Dedications to the Christian god have also been found on Chinese temple panels from the goldfields era.

The carved panel pictured above is thought to have come from a Joss House that no longer exists, in Hepburn Springs, near Daylesford in central Victoria.

This panel contains a dedication to the Christian god and was preserved when the last known Ballarat Chinese temple was destroyed in the 1960s.

Ballarat's large Chinese population was estimated at 9000 residents in 1857. A Chinese business precinct existed until the mid-20th century.

The Main Road Joss House, as it was then known, was built in the 1920s but became dilapidated and was demolished in the 1960s.

Ballarat is known to have had several earlier temples but their locations have been lost.

The text reveals that this panel was dedicated to the Christian god, making it a rare piece in the museum’s collection of mostly Daoist carvings. It is not known which temple displayed this carving. The burn mark (shown below) reveals that it had been damaged in a fire.

This image shows a panel inset with detail of burning from the Ballarat Joss House.

As the 19th century ended, Chinese communities became less populous and less able to maintain their temples.

This image (above) of a Chinese Joss House in the small town of Bright in North-Eastern Victoria was taken in the early 20th century.

Bright was part of the gold-rich Ovens Valley, home to one of the largest Chinese communities in Victoria during the gold rush period.

Some Chinese migrants converted to Christianity.

Pictured here is the Methodist Chan family of Bendigo, circa 1908.

Samuel Chan converted to Methodism and married Rosina Appoo, the daughter of the famous Bendigo Chinese interpreter James Appoo, who founded Bendigo's Easter Parade

BURIAL TRADITIONS

Graveside rituals honoured ancestors and the dead.

Chinese graves are dotted throughout the old gold towns of Victoria. Their simple gravestones state with elegant calligraphy the dead person's full name, date of death and ancestral home village.

To Southern Chinese, burial rituals were important ways of connecting the living to the dead and to ancestors and family.

The centrality of connection to the family name and ancestral home was so important that many arranged for their dead family member to be exhumed and re-interred in the Chinese ancestral village so the full burial rites could be observed.

Chinese funerals involved ritual burning, carrying of banners and offerings of food, incense and paper tokens.

Chinese goldseekers had to adapt their ritual funeral practice to the realities of Australia. Without the presence of women, children or grandchildren to perform ritual burning, members of the deceased's club or association would perform the rites, acting as substitute family.

The annual Qingming 'sweeping of the graves festival' to honour and worship ancestors' graves, is still performed in goldfields cemeteries by community members today.

Burning towers were a unique feature of Australian goldfields communities. They were constructed in the 19th century to prevent summer grass fires being sparked from burnt offerings. Notable towers remain at Beechworth, Bendigo, Maldon, White Hills, Ballarat, Castlemaine, Echuca, Avoca, Rutherglen and Dunolly.

Pictured here is the burning tower at the Old Ballarat Cemetery.

Chinese funerals involved ritual burning, carrying of banners and offerings of food, incense and paper tokens.

Pictured here are the burning towers at the Beechworth Cemetery.

Pictured here are the burning towers at Maryborough.

Chinese graves are dotted throughout the old gold towns of Victoria. Their simple headstones state with elegant calligraphy the dead person's full name, date of death and ancestral home village.

Pictured here is a Chinese grave stone from the Old Ballarat Cemetery.

FESTIVALS, FIREWORKS & PARADES

The sights and sounds of Chinese festivities were an integral part of goldfields social life.

Goldfields communities quickly became accustomed to the fireworks, feasts, rituals and traditional dances of important Chinese festivals such as Chinese New Year, the Sticky Rice Festival or Dragon Boat Festival, and Qingming, or Ancestors Day.

Chinese residents proudly participated in community festivities. Chinese parades were common features of events such as the opening of a railway station or the commemoration of a Royal Anniversary.

Chinese community members would parade in fine costume, hand made in China and imported at the community's expense. On festive occasions community members would perform traditional dragon and lion dances.

The parade costume pictured above was made in China and imported by the Bendigo Chinese community in the 1880s. It was used in parade festivities, for theatrical performances, for fundraising events and for entertainment until the 1930s. Parade costumes from Bendigo were shared with the Beechworth, Ballarat, Ararat and Melbourne Chinese communities for use in their parades as well.

This image depicts a Chinese parade at the opening of the Maryborough and Avoca Railway, 1876.

Here we see a Chinese procession at the Beechworth Carnival in 1874.

This beautiful fan banner from the Golden Dragon Museum’s collection of processional regalia was used in Bendigo Easter Fair processions and dates from the 1880s.

To read more about the Bendigo Easter Fair and the story of the Bendigo Chinese Community, visit the Culture Victoria story

Dai Gum San, Big Gold Mountain

LOONG OF BENDIGO

Loong, Bendigo's dragon, is entirely handmade, is one of the oldest imperial dragons in the world and the best preserved.

Loong of Bendigo was custom built in China for the Bendigo Chinese community around the time of Federation. He took part in the procession in Melbourne to celebrate Federation in 1901 and retired in 1970. This image shows his head.

Bendigo has been an important centre of Chinese-Australian culture since the gold rush era. Bendigo's annual Easter Festival has had a traditional Chinese dragon dance since 1879, when the Chinese community joined the Bendigo Easter Procession to raise funds for Bendigo's Benevolent Asylum and hospital.

Of all the goldfields towns, Bendigo has maintained the strongest links with its Chinese heritage, continuing to the present day.

To read more about Loong and the story of the Bendigo Chinese Community, visit the Culture Victoria story Dai Gum San, Big Gold Mountain

BALLARAT DRAGON

Victoria is home to two of the four oldest surviving Chinese-made Imperial dragons in the world.

The dragon pictured above, Loong, of Ballarat, was commissioned by the Ballarat Chinese community in 1897 for the 60th anniversary celebrations of Queen Victoria's reign. Ballarat's Loong drew much attention when it was first shown. A columnist for the Ballarat Star described the dragon as ‘exquisitely worked in gold and jewels’.

Many public celebrations in Ballarat and Melbourne, including Easter carnivals, the Begonia Festival and other charity events, have featured Loong of Ballarat. His final appearance was at Ballarat’s Begonia Festival in the 1960s.

The dragon is made from layers of papier-mâché, kingfisher feathers, mirrors and pompoms. His face has been painted over, though the original layer is partially visible. The head has survived along with portions of the dragon’s body including fragments of his scales and tail.

Since this photograph was taken, Loong has had conservation treatment removing some of the more recent paint layers to reveal the original fabric and design.

Ballarat’s Loong is one of four historically significant Chinese dragons in the world. The Ballarat dragon appears to be the oldest in Australia and the third oldest in the world. The other remaining historical dragons are from Marysville, United States (circa 1889), Wyoming, United States (circa 1893) and the magnificently preserved Loong, of Bendigo, Victoria (circa 1901).

The similar markings on the Ballarat and Bendigo dragons reveal that they came from the same maker – the Sing Cheung workshop in Foshan, Guangdong province in China. The workshop produced and exported processional material to the Chinese diaspora around the world.

FUNDRAISING

Giving to charity was a central tenet for Chinese residents, who helped build civic infrastructure, including hospitals and asylums, in goldfields towns.

In goldfields towns with significant Chinese populations such as Beechworth, Ararat, Ballarat and Bendigo, Chinese communities raised money for civic institutions. It was very common for Chinese communities to raise funds for benevolent asylums and hospitals.

Providing charity and contributing to community was an ingrained part of Chinese culture and Chinese goldfields residents consistently and proudly made civic contributions to townships.