Seda Larung Gar Panorama | Red Monastic Town from 160 Meters | 360° Gigapixel Panorama

Larung Gar: a crimson monastic town filling the valley

What you are looking at is Larung Gar Five Sciences Buddhist Academy, in Larung Valley, Luoruo Town, Seda County, Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan. It belongs to the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. In 1980, Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok — honoured by devotees as a Dharma King — founded a study encampment here with about thirty people. The 10th Panchen Lama later wrote the academy's name; Zhao Puchu, president of the Buddhist Association of China, inscribed it as well. At its peak, about 30,000 monks and nuns lived here, making it one of the largest Tibetan Buddhist academies in the world. In 2020 we travelled the Sichuan–Tibet route, recording Chinese cities along the way. This frame is the academy seen from about 160 meters up.

No high point, so they built one

On 16 September the team drove into Luoruo Town, ready to shoot the next day. It was during the pandemic. The monastery was closed to outsiders; they could not enter the academy, and worked from a road about 800 meters away. That was expected. Many targets on the Sichuan–Tibet route have no ready-made vantage point. They had to make one. The drone became the main tool.

Near 4,000 meters, batteries held against the body

The hexacopter was built for gigapixel work: high payload, long endurance. Near 4,000 meters on the plateau, thin air cut rotor lift; the temperature was about 10°C, and the cold bit into the batteries. Together they had roughly 60 percent of normal capacity. Before takeoff they held the batteries under their clothes, using body heat to keep them near 30°C — once airborne, the packs would warm themselves and lose less to the cold. Two teammates unfolded the aircraft as fast as they could and ran through the takeoff checklist. One missed step at altitude can turn a flight into a disaster. After that, there was only waiting, to see whether the machine in the sky would finish the job.

It did. 1,223 frames became the 53-gigapixel panorama you see now.

Zoom into the mandala

The three-storey polygonal building glittering near the camera is the mandala hall, set high on one side of the valley. In Tibetan Buddhism, circumambulating a mandala is meritorious: 108 circuits at the lesser count, 1,080 at the middle, 10,800 at the highest. Some people spend years, even more than a decade, walking here. On the square in front, people still make full-body prostrations: down to the ground, up, and down again.

Assembly halls, dwellings, and a valley still at work

Look into the middle of the valley. The main assembly hall is where the community recites, studies, and holds ceremonies — thousands can hear the teaching at once. Nearby are a library, collective dormitories, and a community clinic. After the 2017 rectification, purpose-built dormitories gradually replaced some of the self-built wooden huts, improving living conditions and fire safety. From 2016 the academy's water, power, roads and fire protection were planned as a system — water, electricity, roads, radio and television. A 2014 fire started by a short circuit had already burned about 150 monastic dwellings. Fire safety became the first priority after that.

Who studies here

In the frame you can see monks and nuns of many ages. Male students are called trapa; female students, jomo — from teenagers to people in their decades. Discipline is strict. The men's and women's areas are clearly divided, roughly around the assembly halls at the valley floor, and students may not cross during their studies. The standard program is six years; a special degree can take as long as thirteen. The Five Sciences are linguistic science, logic and debate, arts and crafts, Tibetan medicine, and inner Buddhist doctrine. The academy also teaches Chinese, computing, history, and national law. After written exams come a thesis defence and oral debate. Men who pass receive the title khenpo; women, khenmo.

How to explore

Find the golden mandala first, and see whether anyone is walking circuits or prostrating on the square. Drop to the valley floor to pick out the main assembly hall and the later collective dormitories. Then let your eye climb the crimson huts up both slopes; prayer flags hang on the ridges. This photograph was made from 160 meters. From here the crimson dwellings spread across the valley like a vast red carpet, from the floor up the hillsides. The mandala's golden roof catches the light above.

This is not first a scenic spot. It is an academy still at work. Near 4,000 meters, winter can fall to minus 20°C. Without sincere faith, days like these do not hold. Zoom in and you find people at windows, on the square, on the path around the mandala — each living a life. Taken together, those lives are Seda.