Shankh Khiid (Monastery), Old Manuscripts
Mongolia is a landlocked sovereign state in East Asia covering 1,564,000 square kilometres, making it the 19th largest and one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world, with a population of around 3 million people only. The country contains very little arable land: much of its area is covered by grassy steppe, with mountains to the north and west and the Gobi Desert to the south. It is bordered by China to the south and Russia to the north. Ulaanbaatar, the capital and largest city, is home to about 45% of the country's population. In 1206, Genghis Khan founded the Mongol Empire, and his grandson Kublai Khan conquered China to establish the Yuan dynasty. In the 16th century, Tibetan Buddhism began to spread in Mongolia. By the early 1900s, almost one-third of the adult male population were Buddhist monks. In 1924, the Mongolian People's Republic was declared as a Soviet satellite state. After the anti-Communist revolutions of 1989, Mongolia conducted its own peaceful democratic revolution in early 1990. This led to a multi-party system, a new constitution of 1992, and transition to a market economy. Shankh Khiid is one of the oldest and most important monasteries in Mongolia, founded in 1648 by Zanabazar. It is located 25 km SE from Kharkhorin city. The monastery was home to up to 1,500 monks but as elsewhere, it was closed in 1937 during the purge, temples were burnt and many monks sent to Siberia. Some of those who survived helped reopen the monastery in the 1990s.
Size: 4288px × 2848px
Location: Shankh Khiid, Mongolia, Asia
Photo credit: © François-Olivier Dommergues / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: asia, buddhism, buddhist, culture, desert, eastern, grass, horse, isolated, landlocked, mongolia, mongolian, mountains, nomad, nomadic, nomads, remote, republic, satellite, shaman, shamanism, soviet, state, steppe, tibetan, traditional
