Tulsi Abbey

Tulsi Abbey is a winery located on a small island in the Iníon delta on the coast of Riverina. The island is a small hill which is covered with vineyards on all sides. The abbey itself stand on top of the island, keeping watch over the flowing waters and marshy lands that surround it. Behind the abbey is a small garden in which medicinal herbs grow. Tusli Abbey can only be accessed by a ferry which normally goes once a week to bring in supplies and to take away barrels of wine for export.

Purpose / Function

Tulsi Abbey was constructed around the year 122 AD by a group of monks in dedication to the god of medicine Zayn-Geif. When construction was finished the abbey was to become a true ecclesiastical institute dedicated to their god and which also functioned as a hospital for the sick and as a place of rest for travellers in the region. In this abbey monks used to experimented with several different herbal medicines to find cures for as many illnesses as possible in dedication to their god.
When wine was introduces to the region in the late 300's most monks brushed it away as a new indulgence for the common folks on holidays. However some of the monks would discover that alcohol was able to relieve one's sense of pain when the abbot hit his head on the table and laughed it off after he had one to many to drink. After this the abbey would begin to produce wine. First only for themselves and their visitors but later also to trade for the supplies they need. The wine Tulsi Abbey produced would end up becoming so popular that the monks slowly dedicated more and more of their land to vineyards and the production of wine and slowly they would begin to neglecting their religious duties. Nowadays the monks have become full wine makers and the Abbey has become a secular institution with almost all rooms dedicated to wine production. The only bit of its ecclesiastic past which remains in use is the old altar which the workers sometimes use to pray to the gods for a bountiful harvest.

Architecture

Tulsi Abbey is made almost completely by hand with bricks made from the red-brown clay harvested from the surrounding riverbed. The outer walls of Tulsi Abbey are beautifully decorated with carvings of a variation of vining plants crawling about. In the central place itself stands a fountain with a central statue of a rabbit, a symbol sacred to Zayn-Geif. Inside of the abbey fresco's can be found depicting scenes of apothecaries creating medicines and healing the sick and of Zayn-Geif creating his Pill of Immortality and distributing them to the other Azen.

Founding Date

122

Alternative Names

Tulsi Abbey Winery

Type

Abbey