Brian Mubaraki has kindly shared some more photos from the Mandaean community in Australia. I’ve made a gallery below, so that you can click on each image to see it larger, and a second time to see it full size if you wish to.
Brian shared this information about the photos:
The pictures are of the Mandi which was built according to traditional means and methods was erected in time for the Panja of 2008 at the property of Majid Fandi Al-Mubaraki on the banks of the Nepean River in Sydney, Australia.
This was the first such structure and Mandi to exist outside of Iraq and Iran and today remains the only one built of its type. The construction was from reeds, palm tree trunk and fronds and mud. The Mandi was built and consecrated according to the traditional methods. A pool and water channel was also constructed for the purpose of baptism. The Mandi was employed during the Panja festival and subsequent baptisms.
Those who undertook the building included local lay and priestly people. Those who attended the baptisms were from the local Sydney community.
You can read more about the Mandi and its use in Mandaean ritual in books that are available online, such as E. S. Drower’s classic work, The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran, which is available online in its entirety via the Internet Archive and the Gnostic Society Library.
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