I have visited my second monastery while here in Mongolia. The Gandan Monastery was originally at the center of town in Ulaabaatar until it was moved in 1838. It once housed a community of 5000 monks.

Although it was beautiful to see, I was saddened to learn what happened to Buddhism under the communist regime a century later. They destroyed 900 monasteries and left only a few to act as museums. Monks were killed, jailed and forced to join the military. To further desecrate these places of worship, they used them as barns to store their horses.

In 1944 Gandan Monastery was reopened but only under strict supervision. Today only 900 monks remain at Gandan.