Gandan Khiid is the largest Buddhist monastery in Mongolia, with about 900 monks. It is a working monastery [or has been, since being allowed to reopen after the collapse of the USSR], and as such, I got in the way of more than one ceremony. We could wander around pretty much everywhere, even into temples where monks were chanting and reading. One of my favorite moments: getting pushed aside by bustling young monks carrying buckets of soup for the chanting monks. One little boy looked right at me, giggled, and returned to his reading when another young monk threw something at him across the aisle.
The main temple, housing a 75' tall Buddha statue, was dark and filled with the sounds of people shuffling and spinning prayer wheels around the perimeter of the temple, thousands of miniature seated Buddhas looking down on them. I watched as one woman was sternly corrected on the proper way to spin the wheels [clockwise!]
There were so many good colors: the monks' robes [rusty red with saffron sashes and sky blue sleeve cuffs], the temples [red, yellow, with green and blue painted trim], the prayer wheels [gold, bronze, weathered, shiny], the prayer beads [vermillion, turquoise, deep brown, bone].
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| Gandan Khiid, Ulaanbaatar. |
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| Gandan Khiid, Ulaanbaatar. |
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| Temple, Gandan Khiid, Ulaanbaatar. |
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| Monkin' around. Gandan Khiid, Ulaanbaatar. |
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| Tibetan-style standing Buddha [He's 75' tall!]. Gandan Khiid, Ulaanbaatar. |
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