In January 1929, when the Plenum Tuvan People's Revolutionary Party adopted an anti-religious decree, the Aldee-Khuree monastery was closed and destroyed, and the village was renamed Chadan.

[citation needed] In the Khemchic Valley, 7 km outside town, stands a stubby mud wall decorated with a portrait of the Dalai Lama.

That's all that remains of the original Ustuu-Khuree Buddhist temple which had been built in between 1905 and 1908 on the orders of Khaidyp, the local tribal ruler.

Khaidyp's adopted son, Mongush Buyan-Badirgi later rose to become independent Tuva's founder and first prime minister.

After the communist coup that ousted Buyan-Badirgi, the temple buildings were mostly destroyed (1937) and the monks exiled or executed.