Old country pub reincarnated as new Tibetan Buddhist facility

A historic but run-down pub on Banks Peninsula will soon be offering a new form of sustenance as it transforms into a Tibetan Buddhist facility and community centre.

The Wheatsheaf Tavern, at the head of the Lyttelton harbour in Teddington, has been bought by two Tibetan families for the benefit of the Christchurch Tibetan Buddhist community and the community at large. The site sits on the junction of the roads to Gebbies Pass and Diamond Harbour/Purau.

The former Christchurch Tibetan Buddhist Centre in Dudley St, Richmond has been sold and the centre’s teacher, Geshe Nyima Dorjee, will live at the former pub site.

His teachings cover Buddhist philosophy, meditation and the practice of the Dalai Lama’s school of Tibetan Buddhism.

Keran Tsering, one of the directors of the company that has bought the property, said alcohol would not be a part of the new project.

“We are making sure we can provide a space to stop that has food, coffee and drinks so that will definitely open first. Then we are going to have a community part to the building and it will be run by the Buddhist centre people as a community space. We don’t want to be labelled [Tibetan Buddhist Centre] when it’s not the entirety of its use.”

It hasn’t been decided whether the cafe/ restaurant would serve niche food but its revenue would help sustain the property, she said.

“We are still going through consenting and until we have gone through the processes we are not going to make it public knowledge because that would jinx it.”

Every building on the site – two houses and the pub – would be refurbished, she said.

“We went out there and looked at the superb surroundings and we saw the potential. The buildings are run down but the bones are good. It needs a lot of work. It’s a massive job.”

Buddhism is well represented in Christchurch with the Guang Shan Buddhist

Temple in Riccarton and the Thai Buddhist Temple in Marshland Rd.

The 4000m² Teddington property was bought by Tibetan Kitchen and Lodge Ltd. The company was incorporated in July and its directors are Tsering and Xiaodan Guo. Their families are the shareholders of the company.

The company paid about $900,000 for the property.

A licensed drinking establishment has been on the site since at least 1872. In 1960 a tsunami came up the harbour and flooded the pub and in 1985 it almost burned down.

Local historian Jane Robertson, in her 2016 book Head of the Harbour, credits the pub’s strategic location as providing “a gathering place for local farmers, a watering hole for thirsty travellers and a stopover for drovers bringing stock from Banks Peninsula to the Christchurch sales”.

It also served as a place where farmers could wait for the boats to come in on the tide, a coach depot, a post office and a venue for local meetings, she writes.