Buddhism began to become more widespread, mainly due to immigration from South East Asia following the Vietnam War, as well as the spread to Western countries of Tibetan Buddhism, led by figures such as Lama Yeshe, who established religious institutions with resident monks, and Sogyal Rinpoche, during the 1980s, the founder of the Rigpa organization. This was supplemented by further immigration from Asia in the proceeding decades. In 2009 in Australia four women received bhikkhuni ordination as Theravada nuns, the first time such ordination had occurred in Australia. It was performed in Perth, Australia, on 22 October 2009 at Bodhinyana Monastery. Abbess Vayama together with Venerables Nirodha, Seri, and Hasapanna were ordained as Bhikkhunis by a dual Sangha act of Bhikkhus and Bhikkhunis in full accordance with the Pali Vinaya. Buddhism used to have the highest percentage growth of all religions in Australia, having had an increase of 79 percent in the number of adherents from the 1996 to the 2001 census. Since the 1986 census, the number of adherents has increased from 80,387 to around 370,345 in 2001. However, it started to decline from 2.5 percent in 2011 to 2.4 percent in 2016, although there is still an increase of about 34,700 Buddhists in the number of adherents. Buddhist temples Bodhinyana Monastery Pháp Hoa Temple Nan Tien Temple Chung Tian Temple Sunnataram Forest Monastery Tara Institute See also Ajahn Brahmavamso Ajahn Sujato Ayya Nirodha Geshe Acharya Thubten Loden Geshe Sonam Thargye Buddhism in New Zealand Buddhism in Oceania Great Stupa of Universal Compassion References Further reading Croucher, Paul (1989). A History of Buddhism in Australia, Kensington, N.S.W. : New South Wales University Press Halafoff, Anna; Fitzpatrick, Ruth; Lam, Kim (2012). Buddhism in Australia: An Emerging Field of Study, Journal of Global Buddhism 13, 9-25 Daniel A. Metraux, "Soka Gakkai in Australia" in Nova Religio (8.1, July 2004). Metraux, Daniel A. (2003). The Soka Gakkai in Australia: Globalization of a new Japanese Religion, Journal of Global Buddhism 4, 108-143 Spuler, Michelle (2000). Characteristics of Buddhism in Australia, Journal of Contemporary Religion 15 (1), 29-44 Spuler, Michelle (2002). The Development of Buddhism in Australia and New Zealand. In: Prebish, Charles S., and Baumann, Martin, (eds.) Westward Dharma: Buddhism beyond Asia. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, USA, pp. 139–151 Barker, Michelle (2007). Investments in Religious Capital: An explorative case study of Australian Buddhists, Journal of Global Buddhism 8, 65-80 External links