Nepali Friendship Pagoda & Rainforest Walk - Brisbane's South Bank Parklands

I  have been to Nepal, but I can't quite recognize a Nepali temple when I see one. I remember an exquisite multi-level pagoda built like cubic consructions. Finding this Friendship Temple in Brisbane was a surprise. Located at the South Bank Parklands of Brisbane, this wooden temple looks like it has been manually assembled from Kathmandu. True enough, the art work was built by craftsmen of Kathmandu to help celebrate the World Expo 88. An inscription says that this was a creation of "love, peace, fertility and harmony". 

The artists started building it in 1986 and finished just in time for the Expo of 1988. Its interior has a wooden stair that leads to a narrow second, and even a third, level. There are benches inside that sat like church seats; and glass cover the windows. Intricate carvings of Buddha characterize the doors. Concrete statues of an elephant and a dragon guard the exterior ground, and a moat serenely dozes outside.

Adjacent to this temple is a series of wooden plankways that make up the Rainforest Walk, seemingly inspired by some particular sites of Indonesia or the Philippines. The surrounding ecosystem seems healthy because it is inhabited by a few wild animals, like a lizards we saw on the ground. If you suddenly wake up here, you might get disoriented and think that you're nowhere near Brisbane. But lo and behold, the Brisbane River is just a few steps away.

This is the Eye in the Sky!

Rainforest Walk is closed from dusk til dawn.