Winter Palace of the Bogd Khan

This palace museum preserves the winter residence of Bogd Khan, the eighth Jebtsundamba Khutuktu who became Mongolia's last theocratic ruler in the early twentieth century. A cluster of Chinese-style temple pavilions surrounds a European-style mansion gifted by the Russian tsar, displaying the ruler's robes, thrones and a ger lined with snow-leopard skins. The collection ranges from Buddhist thangkas and bronzes to taxidermy from his private menagerie. Spared demolition to serve as a museum, it reveals the eccentric tastes of the old court.