Towchön Chiid

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Main building of the monastery.
General view with the summer temple in the foreground.

Töwchön Chiid ( Mongolian Төвхөн хийд ) is a Buddhist monastery founded in 1653 in the province of Öwörchangai-Aimag in Mongolia .

Geographical location

Töwchön Chiid Monastery is located a little south of the border between Öwörchangai-Aimag in the south and Archangai-Aimag in the north. In the Changai Nuruu National Park it is about 47 km (as the crow flies ) west-southwest of the city of Kharkhorin - a little northwest of a point of Orkhon at 1617  m altitude  - on the southern flank of a rocky and predominantly forested mountain in the summit region.

history

Töwchön Chiid Monastery was founded in 1653 by Dsanabadsar , who lived and worked here for 30 years. He is said to have chosen the place on his 19th birthday. When it was expanded in the 18th century at the instigation of the main lama of the Erdene Dsuu monastery , the stupa that is still preserved today was built at the same time. Two sacred trees belonged to the monastery: Mahakala and Tara .

In 1937 Töwchön Chiid was destroyed in Mongolia during the Stalinist terror .

The reopening of the monastery took place in 1993, the same year reconstruction began. The Bold Temple, the main building of the monastery complex, was rebuilt in 1997, the stupa in 1998 and the other buildings in 2001.

Plant and building

Compared to other monastery complexes in Mongolia, the relatively small monastery welcomes its visitors with a view of the forested surroundings and the Orkhon Valley. In the middle of the complex are the Bold Temple and the stupa. Somewhat apart from that, the summer temple was rebuilt in 2001.

The small cave Uran Darchni Agui, which Dsanabadsar is said to have regularly visited for meditation, belongs to the monastery grounds. Not far from there is a ledge that is believed to be the seat of Dsanabadzar, as well as one of his footprints. On the top of the mountain, where there is a sacrificial site (Ovoo), a sacred spring and another - somewhat larger - cave, Echiin Chewlii, are venerated.

See also

Web links

Commons : Töwchön Chiid  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Measurement of the air line , on luftlinie.org
  2. ↑ Topographic map (1: 200.000, Bl. L-48-1, Ed. 1972), u. a. with the Orkhon (from the top left in a left curve to the middle left) and near the monastery on this river at 1617  m high point as well as with Lake Ugii-Nuur near the river (top; half left), on maps.vlasenko.net
  3. ↑ Michael Kohn: Mongolia. P. 124, London 2008
  4. ↑ Information board at the entrance to the monastery grounds (in Mongolian)
  5. ↑ Michael Kohn: Mongolia. P. 125, London 2008
  6. ^ Marion Wisotzki: Mongolei , p. 196, Berlin 2010

Coordinates: 47 ° 0 ′ 46.8 ″  N , 102 ° 15 ′ 20.5 ″  E