page_title: Christmas Island
section_title: Religion
hierarchical_section_title: Christmas Island / Culture / Religion
caption_attribution_description: Island temple.
context_page_description: The Territory of Christmas Island is an Australian external territory comprising the island of the same name. Christmas Island is located in the Indian Ocean, around 350 kilometres south of Java and Sumatra and around 1,550 kilometres north-west of the closest point on the Australian mainland. It has an area of 135 square kilometres.
  Christmas Island had a population of 1,843 residents as of 2016, the majority of whom live in settlements on the northern tip of the island. The main settlement is Flying Fish Cove. Historically, Asian Australians of Chinese, Malay, and Indian descent have collectively formed the majority of the population. Today, around two-thirds of the island's population is estimated to have Malaysian Chinese or Singaporean Chinese origin, with significant numbers of Malays and European Australians and smaller numbers of Malaysian Indians and Eurasians. Several languages are in use, including English, Malay, and various Chinese dialects. Islam and Buddhism are major religions on the island. The religion question in the Australian census is optional and 28% of the population do not declare their religious belief, if any.
context_section_description: Religious beliefs are diverse and include Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, Islam and Confucianism. There is a mosque, a Christian church, a Bahá'í centre and around twenty Chinese temples and shrines, which include seven Buddhist temples (like Guan Yin Monastery (观音寺) at Gaze Road), ten Taoist temples (like Soon Tian Kong (顺天宫) in South Point and Grants Well Guan Di Temple) and shrines dedicated to Na Tuk Kong or Datuk Keramat on the island. There are many religious festivals, such as Spring Festival, Chap Goh Meh, Qingming Festival, Zhong Yuan Festival, Hari Raya, Christmas and Easter.
caption: A Taoist temple
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