The Manzushir Monastery

Spending an afternoon in the country side here in Mongolia there are some hidden treasures you can visit. One such treasure is the Manzushir Monastery. It was really nice to visit and to spend the afternoon exploring

Here is some information I found on the Internet;

Manzushir monastery was a monastery established in 1733 CE, south of the Bogd Khan Uul Mountain range, 4km north of the Töv Aimag capital of Zuunmod. Over time the monastery grew into a complex that housed more than 20 temples with over 300 resident monks.

During the communist purges of the 1920's and 30's, the monastery was completely destroyed and all the monks either killed or exiled. The remains of the temple have been turned into a museum. A new temple has been built in Zuunmod also dedicated to Manjusri. 

There had many valuable and rare Buddhism scriptures. For example Marvelous scripture which is with golden script on silver leafs . Now it scripture is saved in Central library of Mongolia. 

A new temple has been built next to the ruins of the old temples and serves as a museum with pictures and artifacts from the original monastery. By the time there are also some gers, a restaurant and a natural museum.The surrounding area is perfect for walking in green woods and meadows.

 One of the stone figures that are around the grounds

 Jilly looking into the big pot

 Tracy and David

 Some flowers that surround the area

 Looking up at the Monastery

 Entrance to the monastery

 Inside part of the monastery

 Inside another part of the monastery

Looking down from the monastery

 Ruins from the original monastery

 Paige and her new found friend

House Warming

Well it is official we have moved in to our town house here in Mongolia. Home sweet home.

After waiting nearly three months for our items to arrive from Indonesia we have unpacked and getting settled. What better way to celebrate then have some friends over for a bbq. We even toasted with some of the best local vodka to mark the occasion. After we had finished cooking we decided to sit around the bbq and relax by the fire. It was a really nice way to settle ourselves back into Mongolia with old and new friends. Not sure if I will ever get used to the vodka here.

Paige and Ben taking care of the bbq

 Dina, Sam, Peter and Ben

 Bernadette, Tracy, David and Jilly

 Say cheese

Everyone sitting around the make shift fire

Genghis/Chinggis Khan Statue Complex

In this blog sees Paige and I join some other expats to visit the Genghis/Chinggis Khan Statue Complex. Depending who you talk to will depend how you pronounce the name of this leader of history.

When we where last here in Mongolia they hadn't finished the project so it was nice to be able to revisit this complex and be able to see the finished product of the statue.

The complex is located 54 km from Ulaanbaatar among some beautiful natural scenery on the bank of river Tuul, in the place called “Tsonjin Boldog”, a memorial place connected with historic events.  

The statue in total is 40m high from the surface erected at about 10 m high foundation and surrounded by columns. Far sighted Chinggis Khaan holds a golden whip in his right hand.  The visitors can walk up to the head of the horse through chest and back neck of the horse, where you can have a  good panorama view over the complex area.

The main area when completed will be surrounded by “gher” camp, designed and arranged like the pattern of the horse seal that were used by the 13^th century Mongol tribes. In these “gher” camps tourists will be able to stay over  night.

It was interesting to go inside and go to the viewing area. With the big boot in the entrance and some pieces on show in the basement I couldn't help thinking there was something missing, no information on Chinggis Khan some pictures but maybe in time items will be added. 

The group stopping to visit the eagle on the road side

Bernadette holding the heavy eagle

View from outside

Paige in front of the statue

Sam and Dina dressed up for photos in some traditional costumes

Paige in front of the big boot

Items on show in the basement

View from the look out

Picture of the head of the statue being lifted when being built

Naadam In Ulaanbaatar

This week we attended the opening ceremony of the biggest festival in Mongolia which is called the Naadam Festival. Celebrated nationwide the main Naadam is held in the city of Ulaanbaatar.

Naadam is properly known as "Eryn gurvan naadam" after the three so called manly games of wrestling, horse racing and archery which make up the core activities of this national festival. This year is Mongolia's 90 year anniversary of people's revolution and the 805 year anniversary of creation of the Great Mongol State under the Chinggis Khaan. It is also the 2200 year anniversary of the creation of the Hunnu empire well that's  what is being stated when describing Naadam to the Mongolians this year. In past years the Great Mongol State was mentioned, but not the Hunnu empire.

When we where last in Mongolia we attended the opening ceremony so I was interested in seeing if anything had changed and yes it had. It seems a lot more effort had gone into the planning of the entertainment at the ceremony.  It was very colourful and there was a lot of different things going on all at once. As like before the soldiers rode in on horse back into the stadium to deliver the state banners called the "Yoson Kholt Tsagaan Tug" or the "Nine Base White Banners,"these are composed of nine flag poles decorated with white horse tail hairs hanging from a round surface with a flame or fork-like shape on the top. In the past the Nine White Banners was a peacetime emblem used exclusively by the Khans in front of their yurts. The central banner was larger in size than the rest and was placed in the center of the other eight just like what we saw in the stadium.
From dancers to men dressed up in warrior costumes and even the sponsors of the day had people walking around the stadium advertising their companies the open ceremony was quite enjoyable to watch.
Once the ceremony was completed we stayed a little while longer to watch the start of the wrestling.

Soldiers riding to collect the nine white banners

A very large horse head fiddle

The very large Mongolian flag near the stadium

The main gate of the stadium

Ben, Paige and Bernadette enjoying the day

The Mongolian family we met

Paige with a couple of Mongolian children

Paige with Dina and Sam

Men dressed up in costumes

Three of the white banners

The white banners coming into the stadium

The nine white banners

Nine banners being carried on nine white horses

Horse head fiddlers

The great wrestlers honor the white banners