CHRIS THURMAN: A refuge for the tolerant on the outskirts of the Karoo

The small town of McGregor lies in a region once referred to as the Middelbosjesveld — that patch of the Western Cape halfway between the southwestern coastline and the Karoo. In the centre of McGregor sits Temenos Retreat and its renowned garden. At the heart of the garden is the Chapel of the Little Way.

Once inside the chapel, you cannot fail to be drawn to a striking image next to the cross behind the altar. Merging various iconographic artistic traditions, it depicts Jesus Christ and the Buddha embracing each other. On a recent visit to Temenos, finding this painting felt a little like reaching the centre of a labyrinth or the end of a pilgrimage.

In its immediate context, the interfaith gesture is hardly anomalous; Temenos is dedicated to the idea that there are “multiple paths to enlightenment”. The garden is dotted with shrines and temples paying tribute to many different faiths and spiritual practices. Yet we live in a world that is significantly influenced by resurgent religious fundamentalism, fused with nationalism and conservatism — from American evangelicalism to Indian Hindutva. These pernicious ideologies promote the politics of separation (indeed segregation) and thrive by stoking fears of difference.

Millions of South Africans imbibe a Christianity of this kind. Derived from the conservatism of the global north, it is colonial at best, neocolonial at worst. It exists to justify patriarchal prohibitions on women’s freedoms and to reinforce homo- and transphobia. It is easily recruited into other forms of right-wing propaganda.

In this wider context, the message conveyed by the hugging Jesus and Buddha seems not only unusual but also urgent. It encourages a blurring of world views, an openness to relativism and reciprocity, a dwelling in uncertainty. With this comes humility, the opposite of self-assurance and self-importance.

I’ll admit that I arrived in McGregor with certain secular reservations (a level of scepticism never quite amounting to cynicism, but also not too far off). I’d been warned that it might be all “hemp clothing and drum circles”. But what I encountered was far from this rather unkind cliché.

Yes, Temenos remains primarily a place of retreat — of silence and reflection, perhaps meditation, perhaps prayer, perhaps conversation. But there is nothing ascetic about it. Good food and drink are central to the Temenos experience.

In 2022, chef Christiaan Campbell (previously of Delaire Graff and The Werf at Boschendal) took the reins at flagship restaurant Tebaldi’s. Campbell’s emphasis on sustainable and ethically sourced ingredients fits with the Temenos ethos, and his reputation draws visitors from far and wide — which is saying something, given that McGregor is not exactly on the way to anywhere else.

Daytime fare at Temenos’ second restaurant, Out of Africa, is hearty rather than haute cuisine. The patrons insist it serves the best coffee in town, though the coffee shop known simply as 51, just down the road, gives Out of Africa some stiff competition. Saturday mornings in McGregor bring a gentle carnival atmosphere at the market on the local church square. Thrift shops, wine bars and art exhibitions sit cheek by jowl on the main street. 

Temenos also draws bon vivants at the annual McGregor Poetry Festival, and there is a certain jouissance in its bookishness: not one but two cosy and well-stocked reading room spaces. If you find your Zen reading books by the fire with a glass of wine in hand, you’ll find it at Temenos.

If that doesn’t work, get a massage.

Above and beyond these earthly delights, Temenos does create an environment perfectly suited to the search for soul comfort (if not cosmic guidance). But it does so without seeming exclusive or exclusionary.

On the contrary: when Billy Kennedy founded Temenos 25 years ago, turning an old clay homestead and a dust bowl into a verdant oasis, his founding principles drew on the mythos of the ancient Greek temple of Temenos: “What was remarkable about this temple was that no-one was ever excluded from entering it. It was a safe and sacred precinct for all.” At the new Temenos, then, “everyone regardless of creed or station in life is welcome to come to heal or rest”.

And that, soberingly, remains a radical aim in the 21st century.