Bereeven Monastery

Bereeven monastery was established in the 17 th century by order of Zanabazar, the first Buddist Saint of Mongolia, and is located in Omnodelger village of Khentii province. The monastery of Baldan Bereeven is surrounded by four mountains each said to resemble an animal: a lion on the east; a dragon on the south; a tiger on the west; and a Garuda on the north. Each cardinal point is also guarded by a Protector Deity. The originally temple was demolished during the persecutions of the late 1930s and the Red Jamsram painting damaged or destroyed. The Jamsran rock painting in the temple now is thought by some to be the original but no one is quite sure. At its peak it was one of the three largest monasteries in Mongolia and home to 1500 lamas. It was destroyed by thugs in the 1930s and by fire in the 1970s. Now only ruins remain. On the rock above a complex of small temples, now in ruins, is a Soyombo, the head symbol of the Soyombo Alphabet invented by Zanabazar. This Soyombo was reportedly painted by Lama Dampilranjamba in the late eighteenth century. According to legend Dampilranjamba said, "This Soyombo will remain here long after the rest of the monastery is destroyed and fallen into ruins.”
 Indeed most of the monastery was destroyed in the late 1930s but the Soyombo painting was not defaced.