The nearest town is two mountain ranges and an expansive plain away, yet here in the remote eastern plateau of Tibet a thriving nunnery of 10,000 has developed.

Gar literally means “camp”, which is how this now-epic institution began. Over the years as more people arrived, ramshackle buildings sprung up in disorganised clusters and roads were built through the middle.

These days the village has limited power and phone signal, but still lacks basic sanitary facilities and clean water, leaving it stuck between its old slum-like appearance and a modern liveable town.

In 2019 authorities began the destruction of Yachen Gar in the interest of public health and safety. It’s unknown what they will allow to remain.

Along one of the main streets, ramshackle houses lean against each other for support. Newly arriving nuns build with whatever materials and assistance they can find or afford.

Some nuns build small boxed on top of their houses, just big enough to sit upright cross-legged in, for private meditation purposes.

Personal space is not a luxury afforded to the nuns of Yachen Gar. Many share their shacks with one or two others, finding it cheaper and warmer to share resources, especially in winter.

While arrivals boomed at Yachen, infrastructure development fell behind.

Most of Yachen’s walkways and public areas remain muddy, or half-paved. The central artery through the houses is so far the only complete road-with-sidewalk paved street.

The exterior of a typical restaurant in Yachen Gar - made of the same makeshift material as the houses, and displaying the menu on a bi-lingual Tibetan and Chinese poster outside (with images for those who are illiterate).

The entire nunnery is vegetarian, an unusual move for Tibet where even senior monks eat yak meat on a regular basis. Here though, they believe that living a vegetarian life is an important way to practice compassion for living beings - an important tenet of Buddhism.

This little shack contains one of many convenience stores around the village. These are run by local laypeople to supply the nuns with their daily dose of snacks in the form of red bull, sprite, instant pot noodles, lollipops, and vegetarian fake meat.

Another small shop shack, this one supplies robes and clothing accessories for men and women in Yachen Gar.

Although the number of nuns in Yachen far outweighs the number of monks, both are catered for equally by this man’s shop.

At an intersection outside the main assembly hall, which is shared by monks and nuns on alternate days so they don’t interact, is a sign which reminds each which way they should go.

To the left, monks are directed toward the men’s living area of Yachen Gar. To the right, nuns are directed to the bridge that’ll take them across the river to their part of the village.

Around mid-morning, the nuns pour over the bridge from their houses across the river toward the main assembly hall, for the daily teaching led by their Rinpoche.

Nuns of all ages live at Yachen Gar, and attend the daily teachings and prayers. The women support each other as sisters, and playfulness is encouraged in the young.

This young woman was playing a game with her friend, pretending to hide behind her hat and not see her.

On the other side of the river now, the steady stream of maroon-robed nuns continues on toward the main assembly hall.

One late-comer skips as she descends the hill to the teaching ground to join her sisters.

With all the nuns already assembled for the daily teaching, this last straggler hurries alone down the main street of Yachen Gar. She’s still got a long way to go, to reach the gold-roofed temple in the distance.

Around the gates of the main assembly hall and grounds, laypeople gather among the nuns to hear the precious teachings. The grounds and hall are packed tight, so the laypeople are left to find seats wherever they can.

From a window halfway up the main assembly hall, the Rinpoche speaks into a microphone, delivering his daily teaching.

The crowd raise a sea of umbrellas to protect themselves from the harsh high-altitude sun, while they listen, take notes, read along, or become completely distracted on their phones.

The sea of nuns listen carefully and pray along with Rinpoche’s instruction.

Young and old, weak and strong, all attend the teachings with staunch faith that it will enable them to clear negative karma from their lives and progress toward Nirvana.

The Rinpoche’s microphone is not only for volume, it also transmits his words via shortwave radio so that nuns who are hard of hearing can tune in on personal devices and listen through headphones.

While others listen passively, some nuns toward the back scrawl notes and copy from books and scriptures, completing their homework or study for the day.

Like any school class, there are always those who whisper jokes or stories during the lesson, lifting the mood and lightening their friends’ serious expressions.

The young nuns and monks are the ones who struggle the most with paying attention during the lesson, which can sometimes go for hours on end in the hot sun.

This young monk, sitting amongst the nuns, appeared exasperated as he struggled to stay awake, stay cool, stay focussed, and stay on top of where the Rinpoche was up to in his reading.

While the nuns are in the midst of their lessons, the monks have free time to enjoy themselves and make the most of the bright weather.

On top of the hill overlooking Yachen Gar, these monks wanted to pose as kung-fu heroes while their friend took photos on his iPhone.