Travel to Ulaanbaatar Mongolia

Ulaanbaatar has one of the most unusual origin stories of any capital city. In 1639, Mongolian nobles established a moveable monastery to house the young Zanabazar, their newly recognized spiritual leader. For 139 years, this mobile settlement—a vast encampment of felt gers and portable temples—wandered across the Mongolian steppe, relocating 28 times to find fresh pasture for the horses, camels, and livestock that sustained it. In 1778, the monastery finally settled in its current location in a valley of the Tuul River, sheltered by four sacred mountains.

The city has worn many names: Örgöö (Palace-Yurt), Ikh Khüree (Great Camp), Niislel Khüree (Capital Camp), and since 1924, Ulaanbaatar (Red Hero). Today it’s home to over 1.6 million people—nearly half of Mongolia’s entire population—making it one of the world’s most dominant capital cities relative to national population. At 1,350 meters elevation with average annual temperatures below freezing, Ulaanbaatar holds another distinction: the coldest capital city on Earth. Yet this harsh climate has never diminished the warmth of Mongolian hospitality that visitors encounter here.

Buddhism arrived in Mongolia centuries ago, but reached its peak influence under Zanabazar and his successors. By the early 20th century, Ulaanbaatar hosted over 100 temples and monasteries serving 50,000 people. Then came the Stalinist purges of the 1930s—more than 700 monasteries across Mongolia were destroyed, and an estimated 17,000 monks were killed or sent to labor camps. Only Gandan Monastery survived as a functioning religious site, permitted to operate as a token gesture while being closely monitored.

Since 1990 and the end of communist rule, Mongolian Buddhism has experienced a remarkable revival. Gandan Monastery, founded in 1809, is now home to over 400 monks and houses Mongolia’s most revered religious object: a 26.5-meter gilded bronze statue of Avalokitesvara that was reconstructed in 1996 after the Soviets destroyed and melted down the original. The Choijin Lama Temple, built between 1904 and 1908 for the state oracle (brother of Mongolia’s last king), survived as a museum and now displays over 6,500 Buddhist artifacts including exquisite thangka paintings and Tsam dance masks dating to the 10th century.

Mongolia’s final monarch, the 8th Bogd Khan, led a remarkable life spanning the end of imperial China, Mongolia’s brief independence, and the beginning of communist rule. Born in Tibet in 1869 and recognized as a reincarnation at age two, he arrived in Ulaanbaatar at five years old to become Mongolia’s spiritual and eventually political leader. In 1911, when the Qing Dynasty collapsed, he declared Mongolia’s independence and was crowned Bogd Khan—a theocratic ruler combining religious authority with political power.

His Winter Palace, built between 1893 and 1903 in a distinctive blend of Russian, Mongolian, and Tibetan styles, is the only one of his four residences to survive the communist era. Now Mongolia’s oldest museum with over 8,600 artifacts, it houses extraordinary treasures: ceremonial boots gifted by Tsar Nicholas II, a robe sewn from 80 fox pelts, a ger lined with 150 leopard skins, and the jeweled regalia worn by the Bogd Khan’s pet elephant. The Peace Gate at the entrance, constructed to celebrate the 1911 independence, was built without a single nail—using instead 108 different forms of interlocking joints.