This may well be the last pure land on Earth. Here, people do just one thing all day long—practice.
The sunsets here are endlessly long. As Chinese cities fall into darkness one by one from the east, it remains bathed in radiant light. Golden dusks, red houses, and glowing stupas make it seem that, at this altitude of 4,200 meters, you can find eternity.
This is Sertar Larung Gar Five Sciences Buddhist Academy, one of the world’s largest Tibetan Buddhist institutes.
Sertar Larung Gar Five Sciences Buddhist Academy belongs to the Nyingma sect and was founded in 1980 by the venerable Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche. In just a few short years, it rapidly rose from deep within the valley to become the world’s largest Tibetan Buddhist academy—an incredible miracle.
This is a utopia of faith. Wandering through this sea of red, watching lamas and nuns in crimson robes come and go, your soul will be profoundly moved.
No one can fail to be awestruck by the endless red monks’ dwellings covering the mountains. That so many people gather in this desolate and sparsely populated plateau of western Sichuan is astonishing enough—but they have all come here to study Buddhist teachings and live extremely harsh lives.
From dawn till dusk, the roads of Sertar are filled with practitioners clad in maroon robes.
Even at dusk, the Mandala still sees devout individuals kneeling in prayer—one, two, three… who knows how many times they’ll repeat this act in a lifetime? Repenting for all the misdeeds of the past.
Day after day of diligent practice, all for liberation from the cycle of rebirth.
The suffering of samsara, the impermanence of life.
A human body is hard to obtain, the Dharma is hard to hear. Never slacken in your practice.
Regardless of age or the time of day, this is a faith rooted deep in the bones.
This is an everlasting pure land where countless people come to seek the purest sanctuary deep in their souls.