Jokhang Temple


The Jokhang Monastery, an example of the earliest architecture in Tibet, can claim to be the center around
which the city of Lhasa developed. Jokhang is the spiritual center of Tibet, the Holy of Holies, the destination
of millions of Tibetan pilgrims. Unlike the lofty Potala, the Jokhang has intimate, human proportions,
bustling with worshippers and redolent with mystery.

The legend goes that Princess Wencheng, Tibetan King Songtsen Gampo's Chinese wife in the Tang
Dynasty (618-907), had the monastery built by filling up the lake Wothang with the help of a sacred goat. A
willow said to have been planted by Princess Wencheng and Songtsen Gampo themselves still grows
outside the gate of the monastery.

Built in 648, the Jokhang Monastery expanded to the present scale in the 17th century after several renovations. Located on Barkhor Street, Lhasa,
it faces west and has four stories with the roofs covered with gilded bronze tiles. It was built in Tang Dynasty architectural style with characteristics
of Nepalese and Indian architecture. The main hall is supported by 20 large wooden columns. There are elegant relief sculptures of human
beings, birds and animals carved on the bucket-arch beams. A golden statue of the young Buddha Sakyamuni at age 12 brought to Tibet by
Princess Wen Cheng from Chang'an, capital of the Tang Dynasty, is enshrined in the center. The statutes of Songtsen Gampo, Princess
Wencheng and Princess Chizun, another wife of the Tibetan King are enshrined in side halls. With the Hall of Amitayus Sutra as its center, the
monastery symbolizes the nuclear to the universe. The Hall of Sakyamuni is the essence of the monastery.

Jokhang Monastery is the spiritual center of Tibet. Everyday pilgrims from every corner of Tibet trek a long distance to the temple. Some of them
even progress prostrate by body length to the threshold of the temple. Pilgrims fuel myriad of flickering
butter lamps with yak butter, or honor their deities with white scarves while murmuring sacred mantras
to show their pieties to the Buddha.

Every year, the Great Prayer Festival will be held in this monastery. The rites of Dalai Lamas and
Panchen Lamas’ initiation into lamahood are also held in the monastery.

On November 30, 2000, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee listed the Jokhang Monastery on the
World Heritage List as a part of the historical assemblage of the Potala Palace.