Building history of Mandal Monastery in Mongolia based on tree-ring dating

We are reporting the first dendrochronological dating in Mongolia; the building history of two temples in the Mandal Monastery, Central Bayankhongor Province. Twenty core samples were collected from the Mandal East Temple and 25 disks from Mandal School Temple. All species of sampled woods were larch (Larix sibirica). The chronologies of two buildings crossdated well with a timberline larch chronology of Suulyin Bagtraa which is located 60 km north of Mandal. The dendro dating indicates that the Mandal East Temple was constructed after the end of the growing season of 1758 or very soon thereafter. The Mandal School Temple was built after the growing season of 1867. The former temple proved to be one of the original buildings of Mandal Monastery.