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MYSTICAL AND SACRED SITES IN AUSTRALASIA
Arta-Wararlpanha, Australia
Arta-Wararlpanha (aka Mount Serle), is a peak in the northern part of the Flinders Range, is a sacred site for the Adnyamathanha people of the area and in Dreamtime mythology was created by two snakes.
Borobudur, Indonesia
This Hindu-Buddhist temple, built in 9th century CE, is one of the finest and earliest shrines in the region and is said to symbolise the structure of the universe.
Kata Tjuta, Northern Territory, Australia
Also known as the Olgas, is situated at the geographical centre of Australia. Dreamtime mythology considers part of this location to be a sacred female area forbidden by men and is described as ‘like the body of a giant female, lying eroded from sunlight and wind since the Dreaming Time’.
Laura, QLD, Australia
This is the site is said to be the location of the most spectacular rock art in Australia and is the home of the spirit beings known as Quinkin which depicts lust and is symbolised by images of the male sex organs.
Melville Island, Australia
The Tiwi people of Melville Island describe in their Dreammings the emergence of their ancestors’ social structures, religion and the islands themselves, beginning with the emergence of a blind woman Mudungkala who rose out of the ground at Murupianga in south-east Melville Island.
Mount Agung, Ball
Bali is known as the ‘island of a thousand temples’, though there is somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 temples but the most important Balinese Hindu temple, known as Mother temple (Pura Besakih) and is situated on the slopes of Mount Agung.
Nimbin Rocks, NSW, Australia
Nimbin, named after the mythical figure Nyimbunji, a most powerful shaman. Those who seek to be shamans would visit this site and undergo tests to draw out and attain shamanistic power.
Pea Hill, Australia
In the Dreaming of the Noonkanbah peoples, Umpampurru (Pea Hill) is the site where a mythical ‘hero’ fought two snakes which then created the Fitzroy River. The site is also the location of a number of sacred objects including inma boards, sacred soul-boards of the ancestors and magical weapons.
Uluru, Australia
Uluru (aka Ayers Rock) is a place of spiritual potency and is most sacred to the Australian Aboriginal peoples where many songlines and Dreaming tracks come together. The ‘rock’ has a sunny side and a shady side, a reference to the myth cycles. The shady side concerns the Dreamtime myth of the Rock Python people.
Winbaraku, Australia
Just west of Haast’s Bluff in the MacDonnell mountain range in the Northern Territory is the sacred site of Winbaraku which, in Aboriginal mythology, is the birthplace of Jarapiri, the great Snake ancestor who created the Earth.
Wullunggnari, Australia
Wullunggnari in the Kimberley Plateau is one of the most sacred places to the Kimberley people. Three stones there represent the Great Flood which, in the Kimberley Aborigines Dreamtime wiped out most of the population of the world, except for one boy and one girl who grabbed hold of the tail of a kangaroo and were carried to higher ground.
Sourced from “The Encyclopaedia of the World’s Mystical and Sacred Sites” by John and Anne Spencer; Headline Book Publishing. 2002.
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