This is part of the ancient monastery at Kharkhorin. Or what remains. It was well & truly dismantled by the Russians; now there are a few carved stones and parts of temples, and in the last 10 or 15 years another ger temple and some stupas have been erected.
We went to the ger temple with the boys. It was incredible to be there with them - they took us round all the statues & icons, and got us to copy the ways that they bowed to each one or touched their forehead to them. Because it was the first day of the New Year, there was an extra ceremony - the monk gave everyone there one of the holy books to hold (these are hundreds and hundreds of years old - written in Tibetan, wrapped in silk), and we all stood in rows in front of the big golden Buddha at the north end of the ger while he chanted and sang. After maybe 10 or 15 mins, we each bowed to the Buddha and then carefully gave him back the books, which we put back in this beautiful piece of furniture that looked a bit like a "doocot", with pigeonholes for each wrapped book.
I read later that, when the monastery was being dismantled, the local people took as many of the holy books as they could and hid them in their gers, or in secret places in the mountains. Now there is a move to try and collect them and preserve them; but no-one really knows how many are still hidden, or sitting on people's shrines at home - the herder families may not know where their parents or grandparents got them, or what they really are.
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