Shankh Khiid monastery

Shankh Khiid is a Buddhist monastery in central Mongolia, located 26km south of Kharkhorin. It was founded in 1648 by Zanabazar, the first spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism for the Khalkha in Mongolia. Very large in the past, the monastery was closed during the Stalinist period and only reopened in 1990s. Nowadays Shankh Khiid consists of a relatively small compound with a central temple and a few other buildings.