SeDa School/Monastery/Nunnery Pano
About a year ago my business partner, Jamin, and I spent four days driving from central Sichuan all the way back to where I live in Qinghai. Driving all the way through Sichuan is a treat. Ganzi/Ganze prefecture has to be one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. So much great culture in that area of Tibet. I wanted to post about my trip there now because this area has been in the news quite a bit over the last few weeks for ethnic tensions.
Travel bloggers, agencies, and books will tell you that Labrang monastery in Gansu is the largest monastery in all of Tibet. However, this is no entirely true. SeDa (also called Sêrtar) is a monastery, nunnery, and a schools all combined into one with a population the swells to over 40,000 people during certain times of the year. That’s over 5 times the population of LaBrang, which most consider to be the largest.
Few foreigners have visited this area because it’s often closed and extremely remote. After hearing about it years ago, I was excited to be able to visit it. Even though I knew it was big, taking in the size and population was really hard. It was difficult to believe such a place existed – a virtual city that covers three different mountain sides. I was pretty happy to have been able to visit.
Below are pictures that I was able to take during my time there. All these are ‘new’ to the blog and haven’t been released either here or my portfolio. Take a look and enjoy…
Love the black and whites, Brian, especially the landscapes. I’d love to visit one!
Thanks Sabrina – was surreal to be there!
what a priviledge to be able to go there. Looks amazing, great images!
Matea – Thanks so much!
love the second to last shot with all the houses… that’s CRAZY! Great work man.
It really is insane – 30k-40k people all living in huts like this.
My first question(s) to one of the monks we visited was: a) How often do you get lost, and b) If someone new moves in, how do people know what houses are empty?!
Talk about an administrative nightmare.
Beyond that they ran electricity to almost every single hut, with one single wire with the higher houses not having enough voltage to be able to run anything.
Brian, Love this pictures and the B & W treatment. So excited to be heading there with you in a few months.
Thanks so much. Unfortunately we won’t be able to visit this place on our tour…
Brian, Love this pictures and the B & W treatment. So excited to be heading there with you in a few months.
Brian, Love these pictures and your B & W treatment. Looking forward to shooting there in a few months with you.
Brian, Love these pictures and your B & W treatment. Looking forward to shooting there in a few months with you.
wow
Excellent pics. Was there in 2002, when much of the town – not the monastery – was in ruins.
David – It’s a great location. Used to be much larger too. You can see some demarkations in the ground on the far mountain and also the road on the left side – these were put there by the government several years ago to stop the growth of the place. Before that, the population was much higher!
Per the town, there’s not much to see there!
Hope all is well!
Brian
I like the seda school panorama pic, awesome!