Ongi Monastery

Ongi was two monasteries facing each other across the Ongi river, founded in the eighteenth century and grown into a complex of some thirty temples housing over a thousand monks, one of the largest in the country. In 1939 it was destroyed and the community dispersed. The ruins run along both banks: foundations, wall stubs, stupa bases and scattered stone, spread over a considerable area, with a small modern temple built in the 2000s where a handful of monks have returned and a museum in a ger. The river itself has run dry for long stretches in recent decades because of upstream mining and abstraction, which changes the setting considerably from what it was. It sits on the standard route between Kharkhorin and the southern Gobi and is the usual overnight stop between them.

What you actually see

• Ruins on both banks - foundations and walls of the two monasteries.
• The modern temple - the small rebuilt hall with returned monks.
• The ger museum - a small display on the monastery's history.
• The dry riverbed - the Ongi, often without water in recent years.

When to go

May to September for the roads. Evening light on the ruins is good and most travellers stay overnight at the ger camps nearby. Summer heat is significant with no shade among the ruins.

Honest expectations

Almost nothing stands above waist height; this is a field of foundations requiring imagination. The river is frequently dry, which surprises visitors expecting a riverside setting. Ger camps nearby are on the main tourist route and can be busy. Interpretation is minimal.

Nearby

Kharkhorin lies north; the southern Gobi and Dalanzadgad are south.