Popped up to Amarbayasgalant Khiid for the Summer Lollapalooza during which the monastery's protectors, among them Jamsran and Dorje Shugden, were summoned. I had been to Amarbayasgalant Several Times Previously while gathering material for Travels in Northern Mongolia and Guidebook to Locales Connected with the Life of Zanabazar but on each of these trips I had been the only visitor present. Thus I was a bit discombobulated when I encountered several thousand people milling around the monastery and the nearby Naadam grounds. We had planned to camp along the banks of the Even River where I had camped before, but now there were already at least a thousand tents spread out for over a mile along the river bottom. There was even a food court of at least fifty gers and tents serving up khuushur, khorkhog, shorlog, and other delicacies from the pantheon of Mongolian cuisine. Fortunately we soon bumped into Ankha, Owner of the Silk Road Restaurant in Ulaan Baatar, who was spending the summer at Amarbayasgalant teaching the monks how to cook and advising them on the management of the monastery’s new ger camp. All the gers in the camp had been reserved at least a month ago, but he invited us to set up our tents on the grounds. Thus we had access to water and were only about a ten minute walk from the monastery itself.
Visitors streaming towards Amarbayasgalant
Amarbayasgalant Monastery
The Even Valley from one of the ovoos behind the monastery
The Dorje Shugden Temple, located about a mile from Amarbayasgalant
Dorje Shugden, on of the Protectors of Amarbayasgalant
The justly famous Amarbayasgalant Spring, about a mile from the monastery. As a connoisseur of drinking water I can attest that this is one of the better springs in Mongolia.
