The Dayan Derkh Monastery Reconstruction

On September 1, 2006 over 500 nomads gathered for the Tributary Fund's opening of the newly built Dayan Derkh Monastery in the Uur Valley. At the time of the celebration, the monastery was so new that sawdust and hammers were still strewn on the floor! Still no one seemed to mind as local nomads huddled inside to witness the blessing ceremony conducted by 20 high Buddhist monks. Tears glistened and smiles abounded as the first prayers in sixty-nine years rang out in the valley during the day-long festival, complete with singing, feasting and, of course, local wrestling. The Bozeman-based Tributary Fund was honored during the ceremony for funding and initiating the rebuilding of the monastery.

The original Dayan Derkh Monastery was a scared structure razed during the religious purges of the late 1930's. Its reconstruction is integral to the effectiveness of The Tributary Fund's conservation work in Mongolia and to the success of efforts to ensure the success of the region's resource management strategy in the Uur valley.

In 2007, the monastery hosted children throughout the valley at environmental education camps and is now preparing for the 2008 season. The Fund is committed to building classrooms and dorms. Monks from Ulaanbaatar's Gandan Monastery have also expressed an interest in making Dayan Derkh an international training center in Buddhism and conservation.

Why a Monastery?

Cultural and religious leaders and sacred sites (synagogues, churches, temples, sacred mountains and caves, mosques and monasteries) have a very important influence on the future of environmental stewardship.

Recognizing that local beliefs must guide conservation efforts, The Tributary Fund re-built the Dayan Derkh Monastery to function as a school, a meeting place for watershed management teams, a center for regional conservation outreach, and a home for resident monks who offer spiritual support and prayer. Most importantly, it is a much-loved place of Buddhist practice.

In support of the scientific and economic aspects of Eg-Uur Watershed Area conservation project, the Buddhist leadership has declared that the monastery will be both a meditation center and international training facility on conservation and Buddhism.

History of the Dayan Derkh Monastery

A few years ago all that remained of the Dayan Derkh were a few charred poles wound with blue ribbons. It had once been a large, important monastery on the banks of the Uur River built to honor a very powerful shaman.

The Uur River winds through a golden larch forest, spilling into the interior of an ancient empire of Mongolia that once stretched from Beijing to the Caspian Sea. One of the most isolated and pristine river valleys in Eurasia, the Uur Valley attracted the shaman, Dayan Derkh, to its banks eight hundred years ago. As legend has it, the shaman stole the young wife of Genghis Khan and ran away with her. After an epic chase throughout all of Mongolia, Genghis Khan finally caught up with Dayan Derkh on the Uur River. To escape the great Khan's wrath and his own demise, Dayan Derkh turned himself to stone. Genghis Khan called upon the Dalai Lama in Tibet to help deal with the ossified shaman. Dalai Lama sent seven monks to pray under the cave where Dayan Derkh took refuge. While listening to the monk's prayers, Dayan Derkh converted to Buddhism and the monastery was named in his honor.

Before The Tributary Fund embarked on the monastery reconstruction, locals continued to celebrate Dayan Derkh by making pilgrimages to the cave where Dayan Derkh once hid. Although the human-like stone thought to be Dayan Derkh was destroyed by the Russians, his influence and power live on in the stories of valley elders.

The new Dayan Derkh Monastery was rebuilt based on historical photos and architectural renderings from the architectural committee of Gandan Monastery in Ulaan Baatar. Construction began in the spring of 2004 with the stupa (a Buddhist shrine), and the Monastery was completed in 2006.