route from
Beijing to Kyakhta. Based on Yundendorji's petition the Qianlong emperor had
officially recognized an annual ceremony on Mt. Bogd Khan Uul in 1778 and
provided the annual imperial donations. The city became the seat not only of
the Jebtsundamba Khutugtus, but also of two Qing ambans, and a Chinese trade
town
grew "four trees" or 4.24 kilometers east of the city center. A pair
of highly ornate 11 metre tall inscribed columns remaining from the Guanyin
Temple in the former Maimaicheng district is now under national protection.
Since 1778 Urga may have had around 10,000 monks. They were regulated by a
monastic rule called the Internal Rule of the Grand Monastery or Yeke Kuriyen-u Doto'adu Durem (for
example, in 1797 or the second year of Jiaqing a decree of the 4th Jebtsundamba
forbade "singing, playing with archery, myagman, chess, usury and
smoking"). Urga was visited by many foreign envoys and travelers,
including Egor Fedorovich Timkovskii (1820), N.M.Przhevalsky, Pyotr Kozlov, M.
De Bourbolon (1860) and A.M.Pozdneev. The Russian embassy of 130 persons which
arrived in Urga in January 1806 included Count Yury Golovkin, Count Jan
Potocki, Julius Klaproth and Andrey Yefimovich Martynov. In 1863 the Russian
Consulate of Urga was opened in a newly built two-storey building. A small
onion-domed Chapel of the Holy Trinity was opened the same year.
By the early 20th century, Ikh Khüree had a
