Photos of a woman who appears nude at a sacred Tibetan Buddhist lake were met with both criticism and praise on Chinese social media, media reported Wednesday.

In the series of artistic images posted Monday, a model appears standing on the banks of Yamdrok Lake, one of the three largest in Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, in a variety of seductive poses. 

Though they contain no frontal nudity, her backside is visible in some of the photos, while in others she appears partially draped in a deep red tunic.

 "She wanted to do something memorable in that scared land … because she's not getting any younger," the caption reads.

"YouchumDolkar," the Weibo user who first uploaded the photos, condemned the unidentified model and photographer as being "uncultured and having no scruples."

While others echoed the sentiments and raised concerns of cultural insensitivity, some defended the images. 

"Cattle, horses and sheep get to be naked around sacred mountains and lakes, why can't a human being take a nude photo?" a Net user wrote.

It was unclear if any Tibetan or Buddhist Net users commented on the photos.

This is not the first nude photoshoot to stir controversy in the past year.

Controversy flared in June 2015 after photos of a nude model straddling statues in Beijing's Forbidden City were enthusiastically passed around on social media. 

Public nudity is punishable with up to 10 days in police detention, Chinese law stipulates.

guancha.cn