First thing you notice about the Buddhist retreat as you come across it in the Australian bush are the flags fluttering brightly among the gum trees and azure sky.

Dubbo Photo News recently dropped into the Karma Yiwang Samten Ling Buddhist temple and retreat south of Dubbo at Boree recently. The meditation and study property set on about 80-aces of rugged bush is the sister facility to the Wellington-based Tharpa Choiling centre in Arthur Street that hosts regular courses and a small shopfront retail outlet.

Volunteer Rosie Aguila and revered monk, Lama Chewang Norbu Bhutia, showed Dubbo Photo News around their home nestled in a valley along a dirt road and among working local farms.

Popular with adherents and curious outsiders who have attended retreats and various courses at the facility over more than two decades, we’ll explain in a latter issue what its role is for one of the world’s great religions with more than half a million adherents in Australia alone.