Sights and Activities
Below are the places we saw and activities completed while visiting Mongolia:
Ulaanbaatar
Gandantegchinlen Monastery: this is the largest and most important monastery in Ulaanbaatar and home to the spiritual head of Mongolia, the Khamba Lama. The monastery was built in 1838 and even served as home to the 13th Dalai Lama. The main hall, Migjid Janraisig Süm, houses a 26.5m-tall statue of Buddha, a replacement for one moved in 1937. We had the opportunity to witness the Tibetan monks chanting during a ceremony.
National Museum of Mongolian History: we walked through the history of Mongolia, from collections of the Stone Age and Bronze Age to traditional costumes, hats, and jewelry representing most of Mongolia’s ethnic groups.
Sukhbaatar Square: located in the heart of Ulaanbaatar, the square, named after Damdin Sukhbaatar, contains a statue of him on a horse. Sukhbaatar was a 1921 revolutionary hero who started the era of communism. The Government House is located at the northern end with an enormous bronze statue of Chinggis Khaan, a national icon and ruler of the biggest empire known to humankind that encompassed from Beijing to Turkey.
Khustain National Park: we spent half a day in this park with the Takhi, or the Przewalski wild horses, that were easy to find. The park was set up to protect the reintroduced horses that had become extinct in the wild, but the animals had been preserved in the zoos all over the world. In the 1990’s, a reintroduction program brought some back to Mongolia and have been thriving in the park.
Choijin Lama Temple Monastery Museum: this museum hasn’t operated as a monastery since 1938. We viewed the five temples take contained many statues made of paper maiche.
Tumen Ekh Song and Dance Ensemble: we enjoyed a great cultural show with traditional dancing, khoomii (throat singing), and contortionists.
Tumen Ekh Performance
Kharkhorin
Erdene Zuu Khiid Monastery: founded in 1586, it was the first Buddhist monastery in Mongolia. At its prime, it had between 60 and 100 temples, about 300 gers, and up to 1000 monks in residence. Most of the complex was destroyed by Russian communists in 1937. All but three of the temples were destroyed and an unknown number of monks were either killed or sent to Siberia. A large number of statues and masks were saved hidden in nearby mountains or stored in local homes. At the collapse of communism in 1990, the monastery became active again. Today the monastery is considered to be the most important monastery in the country.
Kharkhorin Countryside: We had a great opportunity to spend two days and one night with a family in the countryside. When we first entered their ger (nomadic tents), we were welcomed with horse milk! The milk tasted a little sour, similar to fermented wine. We later found out that the milk does go through a short overnight fermentation process. This milk is part of the family’s daily diet. We got to see how they milk the female horses by using the baby horses. In addition to many horses, the family also owned sheep, goats, and cows. We would spend time horseback riding in the steppe while gathering all their livestock. It was amazing to see the amount of land the livestock had to roam around, no fences, gates, or any type of barriers, the animals were truly free (as free livestock can be). We would see other farmers gathering their livestock, including camel! We learned that in Mongolia the land has no owner, therefore farmers can have their livestock roam around and also live a nomadic life. The family we were with had a few more days before heading south for the winter. When the time came to go to sleep we bundled up to keep warm in the ger with the family.
Rounding up Livestock
Terelj National Park
We arrived at this National Park the day all the tourist camps were closing down. We were fortunate to find an owner that was willing to host us for two nights including all meals. We not only had our own tourist ger, but the whole camp to ourselves. We roamed around the park in a day hike to see all the unique rock formations including one named Turtle Rock and also had time to relax in the ger while the stove fire kept us warm.
