Tibetans Gather For Prayers At Remote Institute

SERTAR, CHINA - NOVEMBER 1: Vultures that are used to consume the bodies of the dead in a traditional ritual called "sky burial" fly over the crowd at the Tibetan Buddhist site where the ritual takes place during a funeral near the Larung Wuming Buddhist Institute on November 1, 2015 in Sertar county, in the remote Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan province, China. The last of four annual assemblies, the week long annual gathering takes place in the ninth month of the Tibetan calendar and marks Buddha's descent from the heavens. Located high in the mountains of Sichuan, the Larung Wuming Buddhist Institute was founded in 1980 by an influential lama of the Nyingma sect and is widely regarded as the world's largest and most influential centres for Tibetan Buddhist studies. The school is home to thousands of monks and nuns and is popular for followers from all over the Tibetan areas and other parts of China. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)