High in a treeless valley in China's remote Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture lies the the largest Tibetan Buddhist school in the world. Founded in 1980, the Seda Larung Wuming Tibetan Buddhist Institute consists of a few main buildings and a tens of thousands of small dormitories built on the surrounding hillsides. At any given time, the Institute houses up to 40,000 monks and nuns who come from different schools of Tibetan Buddhism: Nyingma, Gelug, Sakya and Kagyu. Students usually take six years to complete the formal training. Higher levels of training can take 13 years.