Danzanravjaa Museum in Dornogobi

Danzanravjaa Museum is a museum dedicated to the 5th Gobi Noyon Khutagt Danzanravjaa and his studies located in Sainshand town, the capital of Dornogovi province. Danzanravjaa himself built an open temple around 1840 to showcase his art and artifacts he gathered from his family and royals and followers of him to the public. And over time it became a museum, unfortunately it got shutdown during the soviet era. The museum was reopened in 1991 and got a new building in 2008. The temple had a lineage of keepers and the first keeper was Balchinchoijoo, a disciple of Danzanravjaa, who passed down his role to his son who also passed the role to his son and so on. From generation to generation, Balchinchoijoo’s offspring took the mantle of the keeper of the temple up until 1938. In 1938, the communist purge happened and Khamariin Khiid Monastery was destroyed and the temple museum got sealed. The keeper at that time, a young monk named Tudev sneak into the temple during night time and carried out 64 chests of items and hid them in secret locations. Although it was a small part of what was kept inside the temple which is over 1500 chests, the hidden chests were restored 1990 and since then remained on display as an evidence of the great works Danzanravjaa has done. Today you can see Danzanravjaa’s influence on education, art, religion and societal relations through the items he himself personally provided to then the temple, now the museum in Sainshand town.