After Scott finished the seminar on Saturday morning, we thought we might all head up to the Russian monument called Zaison. An abundance of rain and clouds south of the city forced us to change our plans so we went to Gandan Monastery instead.
Like many of the monasteries in Mongolia, Gandan was closed down when the soviets arrived in 1938. Its buildings were destroyed or repurposed. Its monks were killed, jailed, or conscripted into the army. Surprisingly, a petition from a group of monks convinced the socialist government to reopen the monastery in 1944 with limited freedoms.
When the Soviet empire fell, religious freedom was restored to Mongolia and Gandan was one of many monasteries that began a lengthy process of restoration. Its most sacred temple -- the Migjed Janraisig -- was one of the reconstruction projects and was completed in 1996. It houses a 26.5 meter tall statue of the Buddha of compassion and is visited regularly by tourists and Buddhist pilgrims alike.
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