Amarbayasgalant Khiid

Amarbayasgalant Khiid was originally built between 1727 and 1737 by the Manchu emperor Yongzheng, and dedicated to the great Mongolian Buddhist and sculptor, Zanabazar, whose mummified body was moved here in 1779. The monastery is in the Manchu style, down to the inscriptions, symmetrical layout and imperial colour scheme.

The communists moseyed in around 1937, but 'only' destroyed 10 out of the 37 temples and statues, possibly because of sympathetic and procrastinating local military commanders. The monastery was extensively restored between 1975 and 1990 with the help of Unesco. These days about 30 monks live in the monastery, compared with more than 2000 in 1936.

The temples in the monastery are normally closed, so you'll have to ask the monks to find the keys and open them up if you want to see any statues or thangka (scroll paintings). There are around nine temples open to tourists. To the west of the complex you'll find eight new stupas and a meditation centre (you can see it from Amarbayasgalant). It takes about two hours to hike there.

The main hall has a life-size statue of Rinpoche Gurdava, a lama from Inner Mongolia who lived in Tibet and Nepal before returning to Mongolia in 1992 and raising much of the money for the temple's restoration. It's normally possible to climb up to the roof for fine views of the valley.

To help with the restoration work, foreigners are charged an entry fee of around Tug3000. Ceremonies are usually held twice a day at 09:00 and 16:00.