Tövkhön Monastery ( mn, Төвхөн хийд, ''Töwhön híd''), one of Mongolia's oldest Buddhist monasteries, is located on the border of

Övörkhangai Province Övörkhangai ( mn, Өвөрхангай, ''Öwörhangai''; "southern Khangai") is one of the 21 aimags (provinces) of Mongolia, located in the south of the country. Its capital is Arvaikheer. The Shankh Monastery, one of the oldest and most i ...

and

Arkhangai Province The Arkhangai Province or Arkhangai Aimag ( mn, Архангай аймаг, Arhangai aimag, ; "North Khangai") is one of the 21 aimags of Mongolia. It is located slightly west of the country's center, on the northern slopes of the Khangai Mou ...

in central Mongolia, about southwest of

Kharkhorin Kharkhorin ( mn, Хархорин) is a town and sum (district) center in Övörkhangai Province in Mongolia. The sum population was 13,828 (1994), 13,964 (2000), and 14,765 (2017). The population of Kharkhorin town itself was 14,765 in 2017 and ...

. Tövkhön Monastery was first established in 1648, by the 14-year-old

Zanabazar Öndör Gegeen Zanabazar, , , "High Saint Zanabazar"; 1635–1723 (born Eshidorji) was the sixteenth '' Jebtsundamba Khutuktu'' and the first ''Bogd Gegeen'' or supreme spiritual authority, of the Gelugpa (Yellow Hat) lineage of Tibetan Buddhism ...

, the first

Jebtsundamba Khutuktu The Jebtsundamba Khutuktu, , ; zh, c=哲布尊丹巴呼圖克圖, p=Zhébùzūn Dānbā Hūtúkètú; bo, རྗེ་བཙུན་དམ་པ་ཧུ་ཐུག་ཐུ་, Jetsün Dampa Hutuktu; "Venerable Excellent incarnate lama" ar ...

and spiritual head of

Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...

for the

Khalkha The Khalkha (Mongolian script, Mongolian: mn, Халх, Halh, , zh, 喀爾喀) have been the largest subgroup of Mongols, Mongol people in modern Mongolia since the 15th century. The Khalkha, together with Chahars, Ordos Mongols, Ordos and Tum ...

in Outer Mongolia. He determined that the location on the Shireet Ulaan Uul mountain, overlooking a hill at 2,600 meters above sea-level, was an auspicious location. The first physical structures were built upon his return from studying in

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa, Taman ...

in 1653. Zanabazar, who was a gifted sculptor, painter, and musician, used the monastery, originally called ''Bayasgalant Aglag Oron'' (Happy Secluded Place), as his personal retreat over the course of 30 years. While there he created many of his most famous works. It was also where he developed the

soyombo script The Soyombo script ( mn, Соёмбо бичиг, ''Soyombo biçig'') is an abugida developed by the monk and scholar Zanabazar in 1686 to write Mongolian. It can also be used to write Tibetan and Sanskrit. A special character of the script, the ...

. The monastery was destroyed in 1688 by

Oirat Mongols Oirats ( mn, Ойрад, ''Oirad'', or , Oird; xal-RU, Өөрд; zh, 瓦剌; in the past, also Eleuths) are the westernmost group of the Mongols whose ancestral home is in the Altai region of Siberia, Xinjiang and western Mongolia. Histor ...

, during their military campaign against Eastern Khalkha Mongols. Restored in 1773, the monastery suffered severe damage during the

Stalinist purges The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secreta ...

of the late 1930s, as Mongolia's communist regime sought to destroy the Buddhist religion in the country. Religious activities at the monastery restarted in 1992, and restoration of the monastery's grounds was completed in 1997. Two original temples and two stupas from the 17th century still stand, along with additional temples built in the 18th century. Ceremonies were staged to re-consecrate the monastery and a new statue of Gombo Makhagal (Mahakala) was carved and placed there. The monastery was inscribed as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site, in 1996. Several monks now reside and practice at the monastery full-time.

Gallery

File:TövkhönKhiid1.jpg, Tövkhön Monastery File:Soyombo example zanabazar.png, Zanabazar's name in soyombo script File:YesheDorje.jpg, Depiction of Zanabazar File:Zanabazar4.jpg, White Tara: Sculpted by Zanabazar

Notes

External links

Buddhist monasteries in Mongolia Tibetan Buddhism in Mongolia {{Mongolia-struct-stub