Amarbayasgalant Monastery

Amarbayasgalant is one of the three great monastic centres of Mongolia and the most complete of them, standing alone in the Iven valley below Mount Büren-Khaan. The Manchu emperor Yongzheng had it built between 1727 and 1737 to hold the remains of Zanabazar, the first Bogd Gegeen and the finest sculptor the country produced. Its plan is strictly symmetrical in the Chinese manner, unlike almost anything else in Mongolia. Around a tenth of the buildings survived the purges of 1937. A gilded Buddha and a stupa stand on the hillside above.