Exploring Ulaanbaatar: Gandantegchinlen Monastery

Also known as "Gandan Monastery," this Tibetan-style monastery is only a 10 minute walk from our apartment. The Tibetan name translates to the "Great Place of Complete Joy". There are over 150 monks in residence here.

Under the leadership of Khorloogiin Choibalsan and the influence of Joseph Stalin, the Communist government of Mongolia destroyed most of the monasteries and killed more than 15,000 lamas throughout the 1930s. Luckily, Gandan Monastery wasn't destroyed, but it was closed in 1938. It reopend in 1944 and was the only functioning Buddhist monastery. In 1990, restrictions on worship were lifted when Marxism ended here.

Lots of adorable babies to watch in this place!!

These are prayers wheels. You have to walk around clockwise and each wheel says "Om mani padme hum" in Tibetan. Which means "Hail to the jewel and lotus flower." This is a way to cleanse your karma.

A bunch of little Buddhas inside one of the buildings.

One building contains a 26.5-meter-high (86.9 ft) statue of Migjid Janraisig, a Buddhist bodhisattva also known as Avalokitesvara.  It has 2,286 precious stones and is gilded with gold leaf.

This area is always swarming with pigeons and families. It is very fun to watch! You can buy grain at the entrance and feed the pigeons. Then every once and a while all the pigeons decide to take flight it unison. It is an amazing sight to see. I especially love the gentle sound of the breeze beneath their wings as they fly in a circle around the monastery. This is why this is one of my favorite places in UB.

Here is an awesome video on a little girl on the prowl for some pigeon in the air! Her dad does a good job of keeping her at a manageable pace.

Not sure what this kid was wearing on his bottom, just another example of cute in Mongolia.

The monastery is surrounded by the Gandan ger suburb, which Matt and I usually walk through to get to work.

Exploring Mongolia: hiking

 Matt, Caleb (USA expat and my previous co-worker) and I went hiking last weekend just south of UB. It was a beautiful clear day and the hike was full of hills, hills of rocks, long grasses, stinging nettle, and I even found a wood tick in my hair! Above is a new road being built on the way to the airport. We even experienced a little Mongolian culture on our hike! Read on...

We followed no trail but our own. To get to the nearby mountains, we first had to climb this pile of rocky sand left from the road construction.

 Let's go that way.

We had to crawl under the fence that you see to the left and we came upon what looked like a really crappy tree farm. There were a lot of small trees and it seemed that a lot of them had been cut or broken. Most of the remainder were dead. We also saw a huge hole dug out in the distance. Not sure what that was for. There are many inexplicable  holes in UB.

A beautiful array of wildflowers scattered through the grasses.

 Such a beautiful bright color was nice to see. There isn't much for colorful flowers in UB.

One of my favorite finds on this hiking trip! We found this huge mushroom attached to a tree stump. It was excreting some kind of liquid. I didn't want to touch it because I thought it might be poisonous. We also found a lot of spider webs attached to the mushroom.

Looking good Matt! It's hard to see, but there was a beautiful lilac colored flower spread throughout this area.

 

 The most dangerous part of our hike! These rocks were wobbly and were the home to many spiders! Mini landslides were just barely avoided.

Gazing at UB in the distance.

Halfway to the top!

Another view of UB.

So many textures within one flower. 

We stopped to eat a light lunch and got to watch several hawks fly nearby. We even saw a crow chasing a hawk!

More UB

We made it to the top of the mountain. 

On the ridge.

 It was a beautiful warm sunny day (there are many such days in the summer in Mongolia). Hats are a necessity because the sun is so strong.

 This is an ovoo, a structure of rocks and wood at the top of almost every mountain and hill in Mongolia. It is meant to be a connection between earth and sky. People tie silk scarves to these and the surrounding trees, and give offerings of milk and vodka and other things, for good luck.

Heading back to UB a different way.

 
You can see another ovoo at the top of this big mountain.

At the Zaisan memorial. This is a popular date spot and tourist destination. At the top of this hill is a big concrete monument created during communist days, commemorating the Mongolian revolution and the war between Russia and Germany, and between Mongolia and Japan (according to a pamphlet we read). We got Russian-style ice cream cones on the way up. These things cost 250 tugrugs each (about 20 cents) and Caleb once survived on them for 3 days!

 At the top of Zaisan Memorial.

 Here's a taste of the inside mural within the monument. We'll post again with a full panorama of this and some more narration.

fin.

Exploring Ulaanbaatar: City Parks Edition

In this tour of UB, we expose you to the unique and intriguing world of children's parks! Every park is different and everything is handmade, talk about creativity! I think the area we live in has a lot of families and we also live near a school, so there are a lot of parks within 100 feet of our apartment.

I think the below photo is my favorite piece of park equipment! A Ger slide! By the way, I found a lot of broken glass bottles inside that little Ger. I'm amazed I don't see more little kids bleeding in these parks!

 This little treasure spins in circles. I think the seats are a little too small for me.

These area is looking a lot more green now that summer has arrived, but that middle circle is still empty.

I love their faces!

Looks a feels like a crappy elliptical. Doesn't even provide a good workout.

A mushroom picnic with reused tire table!

I hope this becomes a working fountain at some point this summer, but Matt says the odds aren't in my favor. I especially enjoy the elephant's flexibility.

Little kids turning wheels, what could be more fun?

You can't make this if you tried! 

They make great reuse of old tires!

I think this is a little slide, where the bird's chest is the bottom of the slide.

Time to make up a new game of basketball. Any ideas?

That's all for now, but we will be doing some more wandering to other parks now that it is warmer out. Stay tuned!