Gandantegchinlen Monastery

Gandan was founded in 1809 and is the centre of Mongolian Buddhism, the one significant monastery allowed to continue operating through the socialist period, kept open partly as a showpiece while others were destroyed. Its landmark is the Megjid Janraisig temple with a standing statue of Avalokiteshvara twenty-six metres high, gilded and covered in precious stones; the original was removed in 1938 and the present figure was rebuilt in the 1990s with public donations. Around it are prayer halls, a monastic university where several hundred monks study, rows of prayer wheels, and a courtyard full of pigeons that visitors feed. Morning ceremonies with chanting and horns are open to visitors who come early, and the whole complex sits on a hill above the city with the modern skyline behind it.

What you actually see

• Megjid Janraisig - the twenty-six metre gilded standing Buddha.
• Morning ceremonies - chanting and horns in the prayer halls.
• The monastic university - resident monks in study and debate.
• Prayer wheels and courtyards - the working religious life of the complex.

When to go

Year-round; mornings, roughly nine to eleven, are when ceremonies run and the complex is at its most alive. Winter is bitterly cold in the open courtyards. Lunar new year brings very large crowds.

Honest expectations

Photography inside the main temple is charged and restricted in places. The complex mixes genuine religious activity with tourist traffic, and the pigeon-feeding and souvenir stalls sit oddly alongside prayer. Modest dress is expected. It is compact and two hours covers it.

Nearby

Sukhbaatar square and the national museums lie east in the centre.