Editing Ulaanbaatar (section)

===Mobile monastery===
Founded in 1639 as a [[yurt]] monastery as Örgöö ({{Lit|palace-[[yurt]]}}), the settlement was first located at Lake Shireet Tsagaan nuur ({{convert|75|km|abbr=off}} directly east of the imperial capital Karakorum) in what is now [[Bürd, Övörkhangai|Burd sum]], [[Övörkhangai Province|Övörkhangai]], around {{convert|230|km|0|abbr=off}} south-west from the present site of Ulaanbaatar, and was intended by the Mongol nobles to be the seat of [[Zanabazar]], the first [[Jebtsundamba Khutughtu]]. Zanabazar returned to Mongolia from Tibet in 1651, and founded seven ''aimags'' (monastic departments) in Urga, later establishing four more.<ref>{{cite book |script-title=mn:Улаанбаатар хотын хөгжлийн түүхэн замнал, хэтийн төлөв |language=mn |date=1974 |publisher=УХГ |location=УБ}}</ref>

As a mobile monastery-town, Örgöö was often moved to various places along the [[Selenga River|Selenge]], [[Orkhon River|Orkhon]] and Tuul rivers, as supply and other needs would demand. During the [[Dzungar Khanate|Dzungar]] wars of the late 17th century, it was even moved to [[Inner Mongolia]].<ref>''Улаанбаатар'', Ulaanbaatar 2001, pg. 9f</ref> As the city grew, it moved less and less.<ref name="BH of UB">{{cite web |url=http://www.ulaanbaatar.mn/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=165&Itemid=821 |title=Brief history of Ulaanbaatar |publisher=Ulaanbaatar.mn |access-date=24 November 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203042346/http://www.ulaanbaatar.mn/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=165&Itemid=821 |archive-date=3 December 2013}}</ref>

The movements of the city can be detailed as follows: Shireet Tsagaan Nuur (1639), Khoshoo Tsaidam (1640), Khentii Mountains (1654), Ogoomor (1688), Inner Mongolia (1690), Tsetserlegiin Erdene Tolgoi (1700), Daagandel (1719), Usan Seer (1720), Ikh Tamir (1722), Jargalant (1723), Eeven Gol (1724), Khujirtbulan (1729), Burgaltai (1730), Sognogor (1732), Terelj (1733), Uliastai River (1734), Khui Mandal (1736), Khuntsal (1740), Udleg (1742), Ogoomor (1743), Selbe (1747), Uliastai River (1756), Selbe (1762), Khui Mandal (1772) and Selbe (1778).{{citation needed|date=March 2018}}

In 1778, the city moved from Khui Mandal and settled for good at its current location, near the confluence of the Selbe and Tuul rivers, and beneath [[Bogd Khan Uul]], at that time also on the caravan route from [[Beijing]] to [[Kyakhta]].<ref>Kohn, Michael ''[[Lonely Planet]] Mongolia'' (4th edition, 2005); {{ISBN|1-74059-359-6}}, p. 52.</ref>

One of the earliest Western mentions of Urga is the account of the Scottish traveller [[John Bell (traveller)|John Bell]] in 1721:
{{blockquote|What they call the Urga is the court, or the place where the prince (Tusheet Khan) and high priest (Bogd Jebtsundamba Khutugtu) reside, who are always encamped at no great distance from one another. They have several thousand tents about them, which are removed from time to time. The Urga is much frequented by merchants from China and Russia, and other places.<ref>John Bell, ''Travels from St. Petersburgh in Russia, to various parts of Asia'' (Volume 1), 1763, London, p. 344</ref>}}

By Zanabazar's death in 1723, Urga was Mongolia's preeminent monastery in terms of religious authority. A council of seven of the highest-ranking [[lama]]s (''Khamba Nomon Khan'', ''Ded Khamba'' and five ''Tsorj'') made most of the city's religious decisions. It had also become Outer Mongolia's commercial center. From 1733 to 1778, Urga moved around the vicinity of its present location. In 1754, the Erdene Shanzodba Yam {{note|Administration of Ecclesiastical Estate}} of Urga was given authority to supervise the administrative affairs of the Bogd's subjects. It also served as the city's chief judicial court. In 1758, the Qianlong Emperor appointed the [[Khalkha Mongols|Khalkha]] Vice General Sanzaidorj as the first Mongol [[amban]] of Urga, with full authority to "oversee the Khuree and administer well all the [[Khutugtu]]'s subjects".<ref>Majer, Zsuzsa & Krisztina Teleki, [http://www.mongoliantemples.net/images/pdfs/OLDUBWEB%202008.pdf "Monasteries and Temples of Bogdiin Khuree, Ikh Khuree or Urga, the Old Capital City of Mongolia in the First Part of the Twentieth Century"]. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090227184244/http://www.mongoliantemples.net/images/pdfs/OLDUBWEB%202008.pdf|date=27 February 2009}}</ref>

In 1761, a second amban was appointed for the same purpose, a [[Manchu people|Manchu]] one. A quarter-century later, in 1786, a decree issued in Peking gave right to the Urga ambans to decide the administrative affairs of [[Tüsheet Khan|Tusheet Khan]] and Setsen Khan territories. With this, Urga became the highest civil authority in the country. Based on Urga's Mongol governor Sanzaidorj's petition, the [[Qianlong Emperor]] officially recognized an annual ceremony on Bogd Khan Mountain in 1778 and provided the annual imperial donations. The city was the seat of the [[Jebtsundamba Khutuktu]]s, two [[Qing Dynasty|Qing]] ambans, and a [[Han Chinese|Chinese]] trade town grew "four trees" {{convert|4.24|km|2|abbr=on}} east of the city center at the confluence of the Uliastai and Tuul rivers.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}}

[[File:OldPaintingUrga.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Detail of 19th-century painting of Urga (Ulaanbaatar): in the center the movable square temple of Bat Tsagaan, built in 1654, besides numerous other temples]]
By 1778, Urga may have had as many as ten thousand monks, who were regulated by a monastic rule, Internal Rule of the Grand Monastery or ''Yeke Kuriyen-u Doto'adu Durem''. For example, in 1797 a decree of the 4th Jebtsundamba forbade "singing, playing with archery, myagman, chess, usury and smoking"). Executions were forbidden where the holy temples of the Bogd Jebtsundama could be seen, so capital punishment took place away from the city.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}}

In 1839, the 5th Bogd Jebtsundamba moved his residence to Gandan Hill, an elevated position to the west of the Baruun Damnuurchin markets. Part of the city was moved to nearby Tolgoit. In 1855, the part of the camp that moved to Tolgoit was brought back to its 1778 location, and the 7th Bogd Jebtsundamba returned to the Zuun Khuree. The [[Gandantegchinlen Monastery|Gandan Monastery]] flourished as a center of philosophical studies.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}}
[[File:Consulate of the Russian Empire in Urgoo.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|The Russian Consulate of Urga (Ulaanbaatar) and the Holy Trinity Church, both built in 1863]]