The first two pictures look like the place is made of Lego and about six feet off the ground.

The third one, not so much.

I read a book that featured a very similar structure - Dan Simmons or Sheri S Tepper I think. Far too similar to have been by chance, the descriptions were vivid enough to stay with me even if the book has not.

Beautiful, but a terrifying prospect for me (I have a similar fear to Wolf but need more reassurance as I'm not physically brave).

I can't imagine how it actually stays attached to the rock face. It can't be just resting on that ledge.
I guess they don't make Monastery Glue like they used to.

I assume they drilled into the rock and slid supporting beams deep into it. A cantilever like that would be very strong and rigid. There probably isn't even any bounce in the floors. If you build on those beams you can keep the rain off the supports keeping them dry and you've got construction capable of lasting Chinese amounts of time.

Where's the garage? You don't expect me to walk up there, do you?

There are houses in the canyons of Los Angeles that are pretty much like that.

Except that they're filled with coke and pron starlets instead of rice and monks.

And within the next 20 years, an earthquake will probably cause them to fall right off. I'm betting on the Chinese outlasting the Californians.

Chinese amounts of time.

Imponderable.

I'm getting vertigo just thinking about the enormity of that.

There was a David Whyte tape I had wherein he spoke about a similar monastery built on cliffs, maybe this one, where the novice mon ks would be sealed up in caves for three years, three months, and three days. Their food lowered to them by rope each day and their waste carried up.

He made a joke referring to a line in a poem by Mary Oliver.

I think it may have been these cliffs.

Ugh....very cool, but no thanks. I don't handle heights very well at all.

Oh my, that's amazing, and it looks wonderful. Thanks for posting this.