In 1380, Kharkhorin was destroyed. But approximately two centuries later, on the same site, there arose the yurt of Avtai Khan, founder of the Erdene Zuu Monastery. The great circular platform which form its base is still visible today. The monastery of Erdene Zuu is a focal point in the history and culture of the Mongol people.
Another golden era of the region began in the summer of 1856, as the Erdene Zuu Monastery was built on the ruin of Kharakhorum city. By 1872 the monastery contained over 500 buildings including 62 temples and housed 1500 monks. Unfortunately, the majority of the temples and other buildings were destroyed during the political repression in the 1930s, as it happened to monasteries throughout Mongolia.
All but three of the temples in Erdene Zuu were destroyed during the purges and an unknown number of monks were either killed or sent to Siberian gulags. A surprising number of statues, tsam masks and thangkas were saved, however – possibly with the help of a few sympathetic military officers. The items were buried in nearby mountains, or stored in local homes (at great risk to the residents).
Besides paintings, ornaments and embroideries dating from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries, it houses a whole library of rare manuscripts and wood-block printed editions. Here, too, are preserved the works of the seventeenth-century painter and sculptor Zanabazar, great illustrator of the Buddhist canon and one of the first Mongol artists to have attained universal stature.