We visited the Jokhang Temple in Barkhor Bazaar one morning. It was only a short walk from our hotel. The Jokhang Temple was the first temple built in Tibet back in the 7th century. Per our travel guide on Tibet, “The Jokhang is Tibet’s most sacred shrine, the focal point of pilgrims from the entire Tibetan plateau. Situated at the heart of the old town of Lhasa, it was founded by Queen Bhrikuti on a site deemed by Queen Wencheng to be the principal geomantic power-place in Tibet, identified with the heart of the supine ogress.” I have no idea what that means but I knew that we were somewhere different in the world and that I really wanted to visit this temple and have that experience.

Much of the Jokhang was destroyed by the Chinese in the Cultural Revolution, but not the main temple. This temple was a yellow-hat temple. The Jokhang Temple housed over 1000 monks back before 1959 but today only has 70 monks. All monks pray here every day before 7:30 am. All the monastery monks used to come here for their examinations. The Dalai Lama also used to visit here every year. The Jokhang Temple is still considered the most sacred and the most important temple in Tibet.

The temple’s architectural style is a mixture of Indian, Tibetan, and Nepalese design, quite striking, and had plenty of color. In the photos below, you can see the front of the temple from the Barkhor Bazaar and in the next photo, Vicky and I are on the roof of the temple.

There were many dozens of people praying outside the temple. This goes on all day long every day. We went into the main cathedral and of course, there were no photos allowed inside. We saw many of the same things as in the Potala Palace. Many paintings covered the walls with historical stories being depicted. There were many wood carvings in posts and ceiling beams including many snow leopards with complete genitals. Tapestries were hung in great abundance. The palace has some 3,000 images of Buddha as well as other deities and historical figures. The main statue of Buddha is called the Jowo Shakyamuni. It is made of gold and considered the most sacred image of Buddha in Tibet. Our guide said that it was cast in India from the actual Buddha when he was eight years old. Later the statue was taken to China but eventually returned to Tibet and to this temple. The next photo is one that I took from the roof looking down on the area in front of the temple.

Jokhang Temple was much noisier since so many people chanted loudly and many hummed at full throttle. Incense and Yak butter candles were being burned in copious amounts. People packed this temple. Often times, we had trouble moving through the crowds and sometimes we had trouble just finding a place to stand still. In places, it was like a slow moving sea of people. We went up to the temple roof, took photos, and purchased souvenirs from the monks, though prices were cheaper at the airport than from the monks. We then walked the inner prayer circle (within the outside of the temple proper) and the outer prayer circle (actually outside the temple itself).

Jokhang Temple, like the others, had very dim lights with very low wattage, fire extinguishers, Chinese guards, telephones, and so on. We also got to see the staff counting and bundling the money that was collected. I even got a photo of the money being counted.