"I appreciate the priests and the believers for accepting me," says Yang. "I just want the world to know Chinese people have religions too, even without a church."

Yang was baptized in 1997. After baptism, Yang felt closer to the subjects in his photos. "Living in the village for a long time, I was already one of them. My shooting became a natural process involving the most unaffected states of them and me."

Capturing a continent

Yang started his Tibetan Buddhism project in 2002 and finished it in 2012. He took about 30,000 photos and eventually selected 86 pictures for the collection.

"I was so moved by the Tibetan people's firm belief in Buddhism while living in that forbidding environment. I want to pass my feelings on to other people through my photos," he says. "Taking photos of Tibetan Buddhism for 10 years is also a Buddhist practice for myself. I don't want the superficial visual beauty in my photos. My photos should bear relevance to people's souls."

Yang remains single. He became contracted to an art gallery in Shenzhen in 2008 and feels satisfied with his life. "I have so many friends in arts. They are my family. I enjoy sharing my photos with them."

After digital cameras made photography more "democratic", Yang thinks a photographer's skill is determined in a split second.

"You may have thought for decades before the particular shot. You have to put your eyes, hands and heart at the same axis at that very moment, a time for eternity. Your photo will be irreplaceable."

Yang plans to take photos of Muslims in China, starting in 2015 and dedicating the next decade to the effort. He says it will be his final project.

Lu Pei contributed to the story.