Mongolia | Töv Aimag | Baganuur Woman’s Day

From the Chingis Statue we wandered on out to Baganuur, about eighty-five miles east of Ulaan Baatar, where we popped in to see Zevgee and wish his wife Tümen-Ölzii a happy Women’s Day.

Saka, Tümen-Ölzii, Zevgee and Yooton

Saka and Tümen-Ölzii

Saka, Tümen-Ölzii, Zevgee, Günj, and I once did a Horse Trip Together to Khagiin Khar Nuur. Just last fall Yooton, Tümen-Ölzii, Zevgee, and I did a Horse Trip to Khökh Nuur and Baldan Bereeven Khiid. So we had a lot of reminiscing to do .

Yooton and Tümen-Ölzii

Saka and Yooton wishing Tümen-Ölzii a Happy Women’s Day

Mongolia | Töv Aimag | Natty Chingis Rides Again!

Since March 8 was International Woman’s Day and Chingis Khan was a great admirer of women I popped out to the new Chingis Statue, in the Tuul River Valley about 30 miles west of Ulaan Baatar, not far from the Tonyukuk Türk Monuments. I had seen the statue numerous times when it was under construction but this is first time I actually drove over to the site. You can go inside and climb up into the statue itself but the 10,000 tögrög fee ($6.37) seemed a bit exhorbitant, so I passed on that.

Mongolia | Töv Aimag | Aryaval Temple

Wandered out to Aryaval Temple near Terelj with Ulaan Baatar fixture with my Business Partner Saraa.

Aryaval Temple, center

Crossing the bridge to Aryaval

Saraa spinning her wheels

Janraisig and Buddha statues in the main temple

Gallery on the first floor of the temple. Over 200 drawings depict various lessons from the Lam Rim teachings.

One of the over 200 drawings

For some reason the vegetation at Aryaval is much more further advanced than on Bogd Khan Uul near my hovel. Here is a visitor to Aryaval communicating with a wild flower. For more information see The Lost Language of Plants.

Looking down the valley from the front of Aryaval Temple. This photo was taken in mid-summer, last year.

Mongolia | Tov Aimag | Horse Trip #5

On the way back from Khagiin Khar Nuur we made a slight detour to the ruins of Saridgiin Khiid, the monastery founded in the 1654 by Zanabazar, the First Bogd Gegeen of Mongolia. Zanabazar built this monastery with the idea that it would become the center of Buddhism in Mongolia. Several of his most famous art-works, including his Five Transcendental Buddhas, were meant to be displayed here. It was not to be; in 1688 the monastery was destroyed by Zanabazar’s arch-rival Galdan Bolshigt. I had visited the ruins twice before, as described in my Guide To Locales Connected with the Life of Zanabazar. Saraa and Günj said they wanted to see the site so I agreed to go again.

Ruins of the 108-Pillar Tsogchin Temple

Corner of the 108-Pillar Tsogchin Temple

Clay figurines, known as shuteen in Mongolian, which Zevgee claims date to the time of Zanabazar. Someone had dug them out of the ruins and placed them on stone altars.

Saraa at the altars

Mongolia | Töv Aimag | Horse Trip #4

I planned the trip so that we would be at the lake for the Full Moon. The night before had been overcast, but we were hoping for clear skies tonight. The moon was scheduled to rise at 7:41 pm.

Somber reflections by the campfire as we wait for the moon to rise

We were not disappointed. It was a perfectly clear night and the moon rose right over the lake.

Saraa with the Full Moon behind her. This photo is particularly fitting since her full name is Sarantuya, which means “Moonbeam.”

Mongolia | Töv Aimag | Horse Trip #2

At the last moment Zevgee’s son-in-law Badmaa decided to come along on the trip. He would help Zevgee with the horses. Thus there was six of us: Zevgee and his wife Tumen-Olzii, Badmaa, Saraa, Gunj, and myself.

Badmaa and his three boys

Our group at Biren Buren Pass, the Continental Divide of Inner Asia. East of here drains into the Kherlen River, in the Pacific Ocean Watershed, and west of here into the Tuul River, in the Arctic Ocean watershed.

Günj and Tumen-Olzii, who although sixty-five years old is always ready for a horse trip

Dropping down to the Tuul River from Biren Buren Pass

Crossing the the upper reaches of the Tuul River

From the Tuul River we headed up Khiidiyn Gol. Around two in the afternoon we stopped for lunch and I immediately brewed up some Yunnan Gold black tea. Both Saraa and Günj remarked on how good the tea tasted. This was in large part due to the remarkably pure and soft water found in Khiidiyn Gol. I had been here on a previous trip and had sampled this excellent water before. Saraa immediately decided to wash her hair, knowing that the soft water would bring out the luster of her locks.

Saraa doing a quick shampoo in Khiidiyn Gol

Mongolia | Töv Aimag | Horse Trip #1

Came out of Occultation to make a short horse trip into the Khentii Mountains. Accompanying me were my friends Saraa, who had some vacation time coming from her job as office manager of a software firm in Ulaan Baatar, and Ms. S, a Turkish-born but New York-based auteur and adventuress who visits Mongolia each summer with the regularity of a demoiselle crane. From UB we drove four hours east to Zevgee’s ger on the Kherlen River north of the sum center of Möngönmört in Töv Aimag.

I first met Zevgee, now seventy years old, in 1997, as described in my book Travels in Northern Mongolia. This is the ninth trip, either by Horse or Camel, that I have done with him. This past winter he broke his leg and was on crutches for a couple of months, but now he claimed to be just fine, and while perhaps not ready to ride off to Poland to battle the Teutonic Knights appeared fit and fiddle enough to ride to Khagiin Khar Nuur, a small but exceeding picturesque lake in the Khentii Mountains about thirty-five miles ATCF west of his ger. This was a short and simple trip, but Ms. S had never ridden a horse before so I did not want to do anything too strenuous: I figured two easy days of riding to the lake, two days of relaxing at the lake, and then two days back.

Zevgee (third from right, standing) and his extended family

Ms. S. was promptly nicknamed “Günj’ (günj = princess) by Zevgee’s family. Here she looks like she’s getting ready to invade Armenia.

Günj, looking like she just spent an pleasurable morning whipping peasants

Saraa—linguist, calligrapher (she did the traditional Mongolian script frontpiece for my book Illustrated Guidebook to Locales Connected with the Life of Zanabazar: First Bogd Gegeen Of Mongolia, and office manager

Saraa in real teal deel

Günj and Saraa bonded immediately

One of Zevgee’s silver-chased saddles, valued at over $1500

Mongolia | Töv Aimag | Mandshir Khiid

Having spent most of the winter holed up in my lair in Sansar I was eager for some fresh air and exercise. Since temperatures in the afternoons had been reaching the mid-teens, unseasonably warm for Mongolia, it seemed like a good time for a short jaunt in the countryside. Highly Esteemed American Red Cap Monk Konchog Norbu was like-minded. He had heard a rumor from a source in the international cult of birders to which he belongs about the exotic winter birds to be found at Mandshir Khiid and thus suggested a trip thither. I arranged for a vehicle and met with Konchog, dressed for the occasion in civilian plumage, in front of the Drama Theater. With him were reporter and photographer Luke “Reuter’s Man in Mongolia” Distelhorst, and Uugan, a zoologist at the Agricultural Institute in Ulaan Baatar and like Konchog a hard-core dyed-in-the-feathers avian voyeur.

Mandshir Khiid is on the south side of Bogd Khan Mountain, the 7441-foot-high massif which looms over the southern side of Ulaan Baatar. Although Mandshir Khiid is only nine miles ATCF south of the southern edge of Ulaan Baatar it is over thirty miles via the road around the western flanks of Bogd Khan Uul. Bogd Khan Uul is one of the Four Sacred Mountains which surround Ulaan Baatar.

19th Century view of Ikh Khuree (current-day Ulaan Baatar) with Mandshir Khiid just visible in the lower right-hand corner (See Enlargement)

19th century artist's view of Mandshir Khiid (See Enlargement)

Current-day Ulaan Baatar from the ridgeline of Bogd Khaan Uul (See Enlargement)

Looking south down the valley from Mandshir during slightly more salubrious weather


Recently erected monument just below Mandshir

Construction of the first temple at Mandshir Khiid began in 1733. Eventually at least ten temples were built, and also a residence for the the Bogd Gegeens, who did retreats here. All but the Serüün Lavrin were destroyed in 1937. The Serüün Lavrin was damaged, but restored in 1989 and now serves as a museum.

Caretaker's ger and the Serüün Lavrin
Serüün Lavrin in slightly more salubrious weather

White Tara, Buddha, and Green Tara in the Serüün Lavrin

Ruins of Tsogchin Dugan

View of Serüün Lavrin and the main ruins

Buddha on the rocks above the ruins

Green Tara on the rocks above the ruins

New stupa marking the beginning of the trail to the Summit of Bogd Khan Uul

Locals claim this is the largest pot in the country of Mongolia. They also claim twenty sheep can be cooked in it at once.