Overview

Jokhang Temple is located in Barkhor Street, built in 648, is the earliest architecture in Tibet and a sacred pilgrimage site for Buddhist.  

The legend goes that Princess Wencheng, wife Tibetan King Songtsen Gampo's in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), had the temple built by filling up the lake with the help of a sacred goat. 

The main building is four stories and combines architectural styles and techniques from Nepal, China and India, as well as Tibet. The temple is dark and mysterious and filled with smoke from incense, candles, hundreds of votive lamps and from a variety of offerings, including yak butter. Numerous devotees visit to pray, using the series of large bronze prayer-wheels or the smaller individual hand-held prayer-wheels. There are numerous chapels with vivid historic murals of sutras and other stories, and many statues of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. The main hall of the temple houses the Jowo Shakyamuni. The temple has often been expanded and remodeled or reconstructed, and today is a labyrinth of rooms, chapels and external corridors that cover an approximate area of 25,000 square meters. There was extensive reconstruction in the seventeenth century, though many of the beams and rafters are original, as determined by carbon dating. Mongols sacked it on several occasions and there was damage during later times as well. The roofs are covered with gilded bronze tiles and also support gilded birds, bells and a variety of other figures. It is from the roofs that one can see the complexity of the structure, the Barkhor path below and also view the breath-taking Potala Palace in the distance.

The Jokhang houses a large collection of metal sculptures,painted scrolls (thangkas). The Jowo Rinpoche, in the main hall, is the most revered image in Tibet. Besides this one, there are full of thousands of hundreds of Buddhist statues and images which were brought by the two princesses as part of their dowries

In 2000, the Jokhang Temple was listed on the World Heritage List as a part of the historical assemblage of the Potala Palace.

Travel Tips: 

1)  Walk clockwise from left to right.

2)  One hour visiting time is regulated

3)  Option Time is 08:00 to 11:30, 11:30 to 17:30

4)  Tourist groups over 10 persons are not allowed to enter.

5)  Additional RMB90 for a permission card of taking photos inside the main hall