Thousands of log cabins piled high along hillsides in China (Picture: Jesse Earl Rockwell/mediarumworld.com)

If we asked you to picture a vast sprawl of student accommodation, you might imagine a collection of really tall, uniform apartment blocks.

In Sichuan China they like to do things a little differently.

Retired cop saves man trapped in car after it rolls off a pier

This stunning collection of pictures show a valley full of brightly coloured log cabins, 12,500ft above sea level, that are home to some 40,000 monks and nuns.

They surround the main university for the study of Tibetan Buddhism, the Larung Gar Buddhist Institute.


The school is situated in the Gharze Prefecture of Sichuan, which is the largest establishment of its kind in the world.

They surround the main university for the study of Tibetan Buddhism (Picture: Jesse Earl Rockwell/mediarumworld.com)

The school is situated in the Gharze Prefecture of Sichuan (Picture: Jesse Earl Rockwell/mediarumworld.com)

The pictures, captured by Jesse Earl Rockwell, 32, from Santa Barbara, California, also show some of the regions more unusual traditions. (Picture: Jesse Earl Rockwell/mediarumworld.com)

The cabins are home to home to thousands of monks and nuns (Picture: Jesse Earl Rockwell/mediarumworld.com)

Students are prohibited TVs and are around 370 miles from Chengdu – some 20 hours away.



The academy was established in 1980 in the uninhabited valley by Jigme Phuntsok, an influential lama of the Nyingma tradition.

The pictures, captured by Jesse Earl Rockwell, 32, from Santa Barbara, California, also show some of the regions more unusual traditions.

That includes the traditional sky burial where the deceased is placed inside a vessel and left for vultures to consume.

The photofrapher took the pictures over a six day visit (Picture: Jesse Earl Rockwell/mediarumworld.com)

The accommodation is home to 40,000 monks and nuns (Picture: Jesse Earl Rockwell/mediarumworld.com)

The academy was established in 1980 in the uninhabited valley by Jigme Phuntsok (Picture: Jesse Earl Rockwell/mediarumworld.com)

(Picture: Jesse Earl Rockwell/mediarumworld.com)

MORE: Parents of boy who fell into Harambe’s gorilla enclosure will NOT face charges

(Picture: Jesse Earl Rockwell/mediarumworld.com)

(Picture: Jesse Earl Rockwell/mediarumworld.com)

(Picture: Jesse Earl Rockwell/mediarumworld.com)

(Picture: Jesse Earl Rockwell/mediarumworld.com)

MORE: Newly found asteroid to fly past Earth closer than the moon this evening

(Picture: Jesse Earl Rockwell/mediarumworld.com)

(Picture: Jesse Earl Rockwell/mediarumworld.com)

(Picture: Jesse Earl Rockwell/mediarumworld.com)

(Picture: Jesse Earl Rockwell/mediarumworld.com)

MORE: Is there a human rollercoaster in North Korea?

(Picture: Jesse Earl Rockwell/mediarumworld.com)

(Picture: Jesse Earl Rockwell/mediarumworld.com)

(Picture: Jesse Earl Rockwell/mediarumworld.com)

MORE: Garlic bread has picked a fight with the trans community and people are confused