Photography Tour, Erdene Zuu Monastery, Kharakhorum, Mongolia: August 29, 2018

September 28, 2023

New Website, New Blog, but the Old Blog Archive remains: September 28, 2023

After many years of wanting a real website, this month I finally have a website designed by the very knowledgeable Rey Rey Rodriguez ( TheMindOfReyRey ). My old blog, Vacation-Travel-Adventure continues with the same address but it is located in the "Archives" tab on my new website https://www.ceciliaclark.com/ . The new blog which is a continuation but with much better resolution for 4K screens, it is now at https://www.ceciliaclark.com/blog .

After a night in Ulaanbaatar (UB), we were driven west 363 km/225 mi through the Mongolian steppes to Kharakhorum the site of the 13th century capital of the Mongol Empire. Kharakhorum was destroyed in 1388 by Ming dynasty troops.

108 stupas surround the monastery

Erdene Zuu, built in the 16th century, is Mongolia's largest monastery, and it may have been built with the ruins of the 13th century capital.

The Golden Stupa with ruins from 13th century Kharakhorum

We arrived early at Erdene Zuu Monastery so we could hear the monks chanting.

Temple of Lavrin

Throughout the morning worshipers arrived wearing beautiful, jewel-colored robes.

Basan Lama (the abbot of the monastery) gave us permission to photograph the inside of the temple during the ceremony. While Alison was chatting with Basan Lama, I took photos of a young monk sitting nearby. He studiously ignored me until I squatted down for a different perspective, almost falling over, and he smirked--just a little.