Khamar Monastery
Buddhist monastery in Sainshand, Dornogovi, Mongolia
Khamar Monastery (Mongolian: Хамарын хийд, romanized: Khamar khiid) is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery belonging to the Red Hat sect, located in Sainshand, Dornogovi Province, Mongolia. Founded in 1820, the Khamar Monastery was an important Red Hat sect Buddhist monastic, cultural, and education center in Mongolia's Gobi Desert region until its destruction in 1937. It was rebuilt in 1990. At its height, the monastery reportedly accommodated over 80 temples and some 500 monks.
History
Khamar Monastery was founded in 1820 by Dulduityn Danzanravjaa, a charismatic 17-year-old monk of the Nyingma red hat school of Buddhism. Danzanravjaa chose the site of the monastery believing the surrounding area radiated with a spiritual energy fostered by the Gobi desert. To the north of the monastery lie a series of caves where monks would retreat and practice high levels of meditation for 108 continuous days (108 being a sacred number in Buddhism).
Often referred to as "the Terrible Noble Saint of the Gobi", Danzanravjaa was an educator, poet, and harsh critic of Mongolian society. He supported the idea of public education and respect for women and he founded the monastery in the desert to serve as a model of a more enlightened society. The monastery was deeply engaged with the surrounding community and contained a public library, a museum, and a poetry recital hall.
“Khamar Monastery” enters the record as buddhist monastery in Sainshand, Dornogovi, Mongolia. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Khamar, Monastery and Buddhist can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6399902. VIAF identifies the subject as 17146332921118732214. The Library of Congress control number is no2016049891. Authority coordinates are 44.597, 110.273. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1820, 1937 and 1990.
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This entry incorporates text from “Khamar Monastery” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.