My grandmother became a Buddhist nun many years ago. I think the first time I visited her temple in Fuzhou was when I was around 12 years old. The temple sat on top of a mountain full of trees and goats. It was an original Buddhist temple from the Tang Dynasty. The mountain and temple, however, got in the way of the government's plan to build a large highway. They decided to cut the mountain in half and the temple was largely destroyed. My grandmother, being the ambitious woman that she is, ended up raising millions of yuan to build a new and larger temple on this mountain with her sifu who tragically passed way, suddenly, and under mysterious circumstances. The temple they built together still stands now in Fuzhou, called Gan Quan Si. My grandmother lives there with several other Buddhist nuns who are all  kind and have fascinating stories. 

I think I connected most with two nuns, Miao sifu and Miao Xin sifu. They were like air and earth, always side by side (as one of the rules of being a nun was to never be alone). Miao Xin sifu is the would-be heir to the legacy my grandmother created. She's young and clever with a pretty face, and she's good with people. Miao sifu seems really butch to me and I connected with her on that level. Before becoming a nun she loved driving cars and motorbikes and she still works as the driver for all the nuns in the temple today. Pictured here are scenes of my grandmother and the nuns at their temple, alongside some photographs of another temple I visited whilst in Fuzhou.