Dashchoilin Monastery

About this place

Dashchoilin Monastery is a Buddhist monastery in the Sükhbaatar district of central Ulaanbaatar, the second largest in the capital after Gandan. It is also called the Eastern Khure, as it traces its roots to one of the two largest monastic complexes of old Urga, the city's former name. The present monastery stands on the site of two 18th-century temples, one of which had a community of about 400 monks. All those buildings were destroyed in the purges of the 1930s. After the country's democratic changes, three huge concrete gers, first built for the State Circus, were handed to the monastery and became its main temples. You see large round buildings shaped like Mongolian gers, with red walls, coloured windows and conical yellow and green roofs topped by small golden finials. In the courtyard are white stupas, and a group of nine stupas built in 1990. The place is fairly quiet, and townspeople come here to pray. Sükhbaatar Square is about 1 km away in a straight line, and Gandan Monastery about 2 km. Dress modestly, and ask before taking photos inside the temples.