Long before dawn breaks through the thin plateau air at 3,650 meters above sea level, before the first rays of sunlight strike the four gilded bronze roofs crowned with the Dharma Wheel and two kneeling deer, the bluestone flagstones fronting old Lhasa's Barkhor quarter already echo with a rhythmic clatter of wood against stone. That sound comes from the hand-blocks of hundreds of Tibetan pilgrims stretching their bodies flat across the pavement in full-body prostration, touching their foreheads to stones polished smooth across thirteen centuries while murmuring mantras amid fragrant juniper smoke rising from two giant whitewashed incense kilns.
Standing at the center of every pilgrim's path is the Jokhang Temple (Tibetan: Jo khang, ཇོ་ཁང་།, Chinese: 大昭寺, Pinyin: Dazhao Si). Whereas Potala Palace, Lhasa rises imperially atop Red Hill to the northwest as the winter seat and golden mausoleum of the Dalai Lamas, the Jokhang on the valley floor is the oldest and most sacred spiritual heart of Tibetan Buddhism, revered equally across every Vajrayana lineage and inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2000.
IThe Twelve-Year-Old Jowo Shakyamuni, the White Goats Filling the Lake, and the Naming of Lhasa
The Jokhang belongs to Tibetan Buddhism (Vajrayana or Tantric Buddhism). What gives this sanctuary its singular status across the entire Himalayan world is its non-sectarian universality: although its principal liturgical assemblies have been overseen by the Gelug (Yellow Hat) school since the 15th and 17th centuries, the Jokhang remains the supreme common cathedral of all four major Tibetan Buddhist traditions, namely Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, and Gelug. In early Tibetan chronicles, the temple was originally named Rasa Trulnang Tsuglagkhang (the House of Mysteries or Miraculous Manifestation Chapel at Rasa). From that early place-name Rasa (meaning Land of Goats, honoring the white goats that carried earth on their backs to fill the marshy lake bed for the temple's foundation), the valley settlement gradually took the exalted name Lhasa (Land of the Buddhas and Deities). Hence the enduring Tibetan proverb: First came the Jokhang, and only afterward came the city of Lhasa.
The temple's modern name Jokhang (Jo khang, literally House of the Lord) refers directly to the central sacred image enshrined within the ground-floor inner sanctum: Jowo Shakyamuni (also venerated as Jowo Rinpoche, the Precious Lord). Cast in a precious gilded bronze alloy standing roughly 1.5 meters high and richly inlaid with turquoise, coral, pearls, and gems, the statue portrays the serene countenance of Shakyamuni Buddha at age twelve seated in the vajra lotus posture, his left hand resting in the meditation gesture holding an alms bowl and his right hand reaching downward in the earth-witness gesture (bhumisparsha mudra). According to Tibetan scriptural tradition, this statue is one of only three life-sized likenesses fashioned during the historical Buddha's own lifetime in ancient India by the celestial artisan Vishvakarma under the guidance of Indra and consecrated personally by Shakyamuni himself. For Himalayan Buddhists, beholding the face of Jowo Rinpoche carries the identical spiritual blessing of standing directly before the living Buddha.
Surrounding the central Jowo Khang sanctum is a three-dimensional mandala of chapels dedicated to Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Dharma kings. Prominent shrines honor Master Je Tsongkhapa, the Tantric master Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche), a renowned statue of Thousand-Armed Eleven-Faced Avalokiteshvara (Chenrezig), historical portraits of King Songtsen Gampo flanked by his consorts Princess Bhrikuti of Nepal and Princess Wencheng of the Tang dynasty, and on the upper story the fierce wrathful female Dharma protector Palden Lhamo (Glorious Goddess), revered as the guardian deity of both the Jokhang and Lhasa.
According to foundational Tibetan histories such as the Pillar Testament (Kabche), the Mani Kabum, and UNESCO World Heritage dossier No. 707bis, the founding of the Jokhang grew out of the 7th-century diplomatic marriages of the 33rd ruler of the Tibetan Empire, Emperor Songtsen Gampo (c. 617 to 650). Princess Bhrikuti Devi of the Licchavi Kingdom of Nepal brought as part of her dowry the sacred statue of Akshobhya Vajra (Jowo Mikyo Dorje, depicting the Buddha at age eight), while in 641 CE Princess Wencheng of the Tang court brought from Chang'an the gilded bronze Jowo Shakyamuni (depicting the Buddha at age twelve). Initially, Bhrikuti's statue stood in the Jokhang while Wencheng's Jowo Shakyamuni was housed to the north at Ramoche Temple. Early in the 8th century (around 710 CE, during the era of Tang Princess Jincheng in Tibet), the two images were exchanged for safekeeping and devotion, placing the twelve-year-old Jowo Shakyamuni permanently inside the central eastern sanctum of the Jokhang where it remains today.
First-time visitors to Tibet sometimes assume the Jokhang is an ordinary monastic college belonging to a single sect or confuse its function with that of Potala Palace, Lhasa. In reality, Potala Palace functioned as the winter administrative citadel of the Ganden Phodrang government and the reliquary mausoleum of the Dalai Lamas, whereas the Jokhang is Tibet's oldest public pilgrim sanctuary. In historical nomenclature, its Chinese title Dazhao Si (Great Zhao Monastery) dates from the Qing dynasty, transliterating and adapting the Tibetan honorific Jowo (Zhao) to distinguish the Great Jowo Temple from the Small Jowo Temple (Xiaozhao Si, or Ramoche) located just over a kilometer to the north.
IIOver Thirteen Centuries from a Seventh-Century Yarlung Timber Vihara to World Heritage
Across more than 1,370 years spanning the Yarlung Tibetan Empire, the era of fragmentation, the Later Diffusion of Buddhism, Phagmodrupa patronage, the grand 17th-century expansion under the 5th Dalai Lama, and modern conservation, the Jokhang grew from a compact two-story Indian-plan vihara into a vast 25,100-square-meter sacred complex.
- 639 to 647Emperor Songtsen Gampo fills Wotang Lake and builds the sanctuaryGuided by Princess Wencheng's geomantic calculations and Princess Bhrikuti's vow, Emperor Songtsen Gampo had herds of white goats haul earth and stone to fill Wotang Lake, raising the stone-and-juniper Rasa Trulnang Tsuglagkhang.
- c. 710Enshrinement of the twelve-year-old Jowo Shakyamuni in the main sanctumDuring the reign of Emperor Tride Tsuktsen and Tang Princess Jincheng, the gilded bronze Jowo Shakyamuni statue was transferred from Ramoche Temple into the central rear chapel of the Jokhang.
- 823Erection of the Tang-Tibet Alliance Stele before the west gateIn the 3rd year of the Tang Changqing reign (823 CE), the Tang court and the Tibetan Empire erected the 4.78-meter bilingual Tibetan-and-Chinese Tang-Tibet Treaty Stele outside the main western entrance, recording their solemn pledge of lasting peace.
- Mid-9th centurySurvival of the Jowo statue through King Langdarma's suppressionDuring King Langdarma's persecution of monastic Buddhism around 841 CE, devoted monks concealed the Jowo Shakyamuni beneath sand and sealed the chapel portals, preserving both the statue and the core timber structure until the 10th- and 11th-century revival.
- 1409Master Tsongkhapa inaugurates the Monlam Festival and crowns the JowoIn the first Tibetan lunar month of 1409, Gelug founder Je Tsongkhapa convened tens of thousands of monks at the Jokhang for the inaugural Monlam Chenmo (Great Prayer Festival) and offered a jewel-set Five-Buddha gold crown upon the Jowo Shakyamuni.
- 1645 to late 17th centuryGrand expansion and four gilded roofs under the 5th Dalai LamaThe Great 5th Dalai Lama (Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso) expanded the outer cloisters, debate courtyard, Thousand-Buddha galleries, and monastic quarters while crowning the upper stories with four gilded bronze roofs, establishing the 25,100-square-meter complex seen today.
- 1961 and 2000First-batch National Protection listing and UNESCO World Heritage inscriptionListed in China's first batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units in 1961 (followed by major restoration between 1972 and 1980), the Jokhang was inscribed by UNESCO in November 2000 as an extension to the Historic Ensemble of the Potala Palace, Lhasa.
Cross-checking archaeological investigations with Tibetan chronicles highlights two notable scholarly points. First, regarding the exact founding year: classical Tibetan histories and modern reference works cite either 639 CE (the commencement of lake-filling and groundwork) or 647 CE (the completion of the core chapels), leading UNESCO and architectural historians to date the initial construction broadly to the mid-7th century (c. 639 to 647 CE). Second, regarding the age of the standing timberwork: radiocarbon (C14) testing conducted by international conservation specialists on the Tibetan juniper columns, lintels, and carved beams of the ground-floor inner shrine confirmed that numerous structural timbers, along with Newar carvings of winged lions, yakshas, and Gupta-Licchavi musicians, genuinely date to the 7th and 8th centuries, making the Jokhang the oldest surviving timber-frame structure in Tibet.
IIIAncient Indian Vihara Layout, Seventh-Century Newar Woodcarving, Gilded Tang Roofs, and Three Kora Circuits
The entire Jokhang complex covers roughly 25,100 square meters, expanding westward from its oldest core: a four-story central sanctuary rising nearly 30 meters high. Unlike almost all Chinese Mahayana monasteries and unlike Potala Palace, which sit north and face south, the main axis of the Jokhang sits East and faces due West, opening its main portal onto Barkhor Square toward the west in homage to Princess Bhrikuti's homeland of Nepal and the sacred Buddhist heartland of India.
Architecturally, the Jokhang stands as a living synthesis of four Asian building traditions united in a single monument: its square ground plan of chapels ringing a central skylit atrium derives from Gupta-era Indian Buddhist viharas (resembling those excavated at Nalanda), its thick inward-sloping whitewashed stone walls topped by crimson-dyed tamarisk friezes (penma) exemplify Tibetan fortress masonry, its vase-shaped wooden columns and foliate doorway lintels preserve 7th-century Kathmandu Valley Newar woodcarving, and its four upper pavilions are topped with sweeping gilded bronze roofs supported by interlocking bracket sets in imperial Tang-dynasty palace style.
Laid out as a square architectural mandala at the heart of the temple. Its lower two tiers preserve dark, yak-butter-seasoned juniper pillars from the 7th century, topped by crossbeams carved in high relief with crouching lions, dwarfish atlantes, lotus scrolls, and celestial musicians reflecting early Indian and Licchavi Nepalese artistry.
Set at the center of the eastern wall of the main hall lies Tibet's holiest chapel. The 1.5-meter gilded bronze twelve-year-old Shakyamuni sits beneath a carved Vajrayana torana arch wearing the jewel-encrusted Five-Buddha gold crown offered by Je Tsongkhapa in 1409, fronted by massive solid gold and silver vats filled with melted yak butter keeping hundreds of wicks burning day and night.
Rising above the fourth-floor terrace are four dazzling gilded-bronze hip-and-gable pavilion roofs. Directly atop the western roof ridge overlooking Barkhor Square gleams the quintessential emblem of Tibetan Buddhism: an eight-spoked golden Dharma Wheel (Dharmachakra) flanked symmetrically by a kneeling stag and doe, recalling the Buddha's First Turning of the Wheel of Dharma at the Deer Park in Sarnath.
West of the 7th-century core stretches an expansive open-air flagstone courtyard and assembly portico added between the 14th and 17th centuries, where thousands of monks chant during major prayer festivals. Wrapping the cloister walls are more than 1,000 linear meters of mineral-pigment murals, famously depicting Princess Wencheng's horse-drawn cortege bringing the Jowo statue to Lhasa and white goats carrying earth to build the temple.
The Jokhang forms the exact hub of Lhasa's three clockwise circumambulation paths. The inner Nangkor (roughly 500 meters) runs along the corridor immediately surrounding the central shrine hall, lined with nearly 380 brass prayer wheels. The middle Barkhor (roughly 1 kilometer) traces the historic polygonal street around the outer monastery walls. The outer Lingkor (roughly 8 kilometers) encircles all of old Lhasa, Iron Hill, and Potala Palace.
Beneath the western entrance porch lie rows of dark flagstones worn mirror-smooth by millions of full-body prostrations over the centuries. Just outside the west plaza stands a stone enclosure protecting the 4.78-meter Tang-Tibet Alliance Stele erected in 823 CE (mounted on a stone tortoise and capped with carved dragons), beside the ancient willow tree traditionally associated with Princess Wencheng.
| Feature | Specification and facts | Verified source |
|---|---|---|
| Total complex area | Approx. 25,100 sq m, expanded outward around the 7th-century vihara core | UNESCO (dossier 707bis), China.org.cn |
| Main sanctuary and roofs | 4 stories (approx. 30 m tall), uniting Yarlung timberwork, Newar carvings, and gilded Tang roofs | UNESCO, Encyclopaedia Britannica |
| Central sacred image | Jowo Shakyamuni (Buddha at age 12), gilded bronze c. 1.5 m tall, brought to Tibet in 641 CE | Britannica, Treasury of Lives, Travel China Guide |
| Tang-Tibet Alliance Stele | Erected in 823 CE outside the west gate, 4.78 m tall, inscribed bilingually in Tibetan and Chinese | China.org.cn, Travel China Guide |
| Three Kora circuits | Nangkor (c. 0.5 km), Barkhor (c. 1 km), Lingkor (c. 8 km) | UNESCO, Barkhor Historic Quarter records |
| Coordinates and elevation | 29.6531° N, 91.1322° E, elevation approx. 3,650 m | Wikidata (Q735914), Lhasa satellite survey |
IVThe Lie of the Land and the Facing
Few sacred monuments in Asia preserve as explicit a historical record of geomantic earth-examination at their founding as the Jokhang. Seventh-century Tibetan builders combined esoteric Vajrayana earth-divination known as Sa-che (Sa dpyad) with Yin-Yang and Five-Element calendrical topography brought from Tang Chang'an during the era of Princess Wencheng. The section below compares that classical Tibetan geomantic mandala with the library's traditional landform reading.
Examining the macro-topography of the Kyi Chu (Lhasa River) basin at coordinates 29.6531° N, 91.1322° E, the level plain of Lhasa rests sheltered inside an eight-peaked ring of the Nyenchen Tanglha range compared in Tibetan texts to an eight-petaled sky lotus above an eight-spoked earth wheel. Along the southern margin of the old city, the Kyi Chu flows gently from east to west, serving as a broad, tranquil water bright hall guarding the Barkhor plain on its northern bank. According to the famous 7th-century Supine Demoness Subjugation Map preserved in Tibetan thangkas and chronicles, Princess Wencheng's divination read the entire Tibetan plateau as the body of a giant supine earth-spirit (rinmo), identifying the subterranean marsh lake of Wotang at the center of the Rasa Valley as her heart-chakra water node where underground springs converged. Filling Wotang Lake with stone and earth and planting the Jokhang sanctuary directly over its center applied the classical principle of locking the water node to anchor the vital center: taming seasonal marsh flooding while transforming the valley's hydrological center into an unshakable spiritual pivot flanked across Tibet by twelve concentric border-taming temples.
In terms of structural axis and dynamic human qi flow, whereas Potala Palace, Lhasa two kilometers to the northwest sits north and faces south in imperial sovereign fashion, the Jokhang on the plain is deliberately oriented to sit East and face due West (its main entrance opening west toward 270 degrees while the rear Jowo sanctum backs toward the upstream eastern reach of the Kyi Chu). Spiritually, this westward orientation gazes across the Himalayas toward Nepal and the Indian homeland of Shakyamuni Buddha, while topographically its western plaza opens toward Red Hill (Marpo Ri) and Iron Hill (Chakpo Ri), linking the valley sanctuary and the hilltop palace into a balanced sacred triangle. Equally remarkable is the living kinetic field generated by the Nangkor, Barkhor, and Lingkor circuits: tens of thousands of pilgrims walking continuously clockwise around the central Jowo Shakyamuni from dawn until late night for over thirteen hundred years create an unbroken spiral of devotional warmth and human vitality at the heart of the plateau.
VThe Great Prayer Festival (Monlam), Sacred Saga Dawa, and Pilgrimage Ties with Vietnam
All liturgical observances at the Jokhang follow the Tibetan lunisolar calendar (the Phugpa astronomical system derived from the Kalachakra Tantra, whose lunar months sometimes align with and sometimes differ by a day or an intercalary month from the Chinese and Vietnamese lunar calendars). On auspicious monthly observance days (the 1st, 8th, 10th, 15th, and 30th days of each Tibetan month), long lines of devotees carry brass thermoses of melted yak butter around the Barkhor to replenish the eternal offering lamps before the twelve-year-old Buddha.
| Date | Calendar system | Festival | Liturgical observances at Jokhang Temple |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4th to 25th day of the 1st month (climax on the 15th) | Tibetan calendar | Monlam Chenmo (Great Prayer Festival) and Chotrul Duchen Butter-Sculpture Night | Established in 1409 by Master Je Tsongkhapa commemorating the Buddha's fifteen days of miracles at Shravasti. Monks gather for mass prayer assemblies and philosophical debates, culminating on the full moon night of the 15th with towering polychrome yak-butter sculptures illuminated around the Barkhor. |
| Entire 4th month (culminating on the 15th full moon) | Tibetan calendar | Saga Dawa Sacred Month (Birth, Enlightenment, and Parinirvana of the Buddha) | The most merit-multiplying month of the Tibetan year, celebrating the birth, enlightenment, and parinirvana of Shakyamuni Buddha on the full moon day. Tens of thousands of pilgrims from Tibet, Qinghai, and Sichuan perform continuous prostration circuits around the Barkhor and Lingkor. |
| 22nd day of the 9th month | Tibetan calendar | Lhabab Duchen (Buddha's Descent from the Heaven of the Thirty-Three) | Commemorating Shakyamuni Buddha's return to the human realm after teaching the Dharma for three months to his mother Queen Maya in the Trayastrimsa Heaven. Ahead of the festival, the temple's white stone walls and crimson penma friezes are freshly recoated. |
| 15th day of the 10th month | Tibetan calendar | Palden Lhamo Festival (Fairy Day or Glorious Goddess Festival) | A beloved Lhasa festival centered uniquely on the Jokhang's guardian goddess Palden Lhamo. At daybreak, her sacred image is carried down from the upper chapel around the Barkhor to receive offerings of highland barley beer and white silk khata scarves, celebrated especially by Tibetan women. |
| 25th day of the 10th month | Tibetan calendar | Ganden Ngamchoe (Je Tsongkhapa Butter Lamp Festival) | Marking the anniversary of Master Je Tsongkhapa's parinirvana in 1419. At nightfall, tens of thousands of yak-butter lamps light up every window ledge and gilded roof terrace of the Jokhang while residents chant the Migtsema prayer. |
Pilgrimage connections and artistic parallels with Vietnamese Buddhism. Over recent decades, alongside growing spiritual exchange between Vietnamese Mahayana practitioners and Himalayan Vajrayana lineages, numerous delegations of Vietnamese monastics and lay Buddhists travel across the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau each spring and autumn to Lhasa to bow before the Jowo Shakyamuni and walk the Barkhor kora spinning prayer wheels. Stepping inside the Jokhang's chapel of Thousand-Armed Eleven-Faced Avalokiteshvara and viewing its mandala shrines, Vietnamese pilgrims readily recognize deep iconographic kinship with Esoteric Buddhist currents absorbed into Vietnamese Buddhism from the Ly and Tran dynasties through the 17th century, exemplified by the masterpiece gilded-wood Thousand-Eyed Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara statue at But Thap Pagoda in Bac Ninh Province and northern Vietnam's rotating Nine-Grade Lotus Towers (Cuu Pham Lien Hoa), which embody the exact same Dharma-wheel cosmology as Tibetan prayer wheels.
VILocation And How To Get There
- Address
- Số 2 đường Barkhor Xijie (Bát Khuế Tây Nhai), quảng trường Barkhor, quận Chengguan (Thành Quan), thành phố Lhasa, Khu tự trị Tây Tạng (西藏自治区拉萨市城关区八廓西街2号)
- Getting there
- Jokhang Temple stands at the center of the historic Barkhor pedestrian quarter in Chengguan District, central Lhasa, roughly 2 kilometers east of Potala Palace. From Lhasa Railway Station or Lhasa Gonggar Airport (via the airport shuttle into downtown Lhasa), visitors can take city buses to the Jiangsu Road or Lhasa Department Store stops and walk into the pedestrian Barkhor circuit leading to the temple's western plaza.
- Coordinates
- 29.6531, 91.1322
Jokhang Temple stands at 3,650 meters elevation where the plateau air is thin, and inside its enclosed chapels hundreds of burning yak-butter lamps further reduce oxygen levels, so visitors should walk unhurriedly and breathe steadily. Whenever walking along the outer Barkhor street or the inner Nangkor prayer-wheel gallery, always walk clockwise (from left to right) and spin prayer wheels clockwise with the right hand. Before entering the Jowo Khang sanctum, remove hats and sunglasses, dress modestly with shoulders and knees covered, step over wooden door thresholds rather than on them, never step directly in front of pilgrims performing full-body prostrations in the west plaza, and strictly observe the prohibition on photography and filming inside all chapels.
Nearby places in the library
VIIContribute To This Page
Contribute photos, information or video for Jokhang Temple, Lhasa
Góp ảnh, thông tin hoặc video cho Chùa Đại Chiêu (Jokhang), LhasaEveryone is welcome to enrich this page: a photo you took, a detail the page misses, a short video. Every contribution is read and answered.
Thầy Ưng Khiêm mời cộng đồng cùng làm giàu trang này. Ảnh chụp tận nơi, một chi tiết lịch sử chưa được nhắc, một đoạn video ngắn: mọi đóng góp đều được đọc và trả lời.
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?Quick Questions
Why is Jokhang Temple revered as the holiest sanctuary in Tibetan Buddhism
Founded in the mid-7th century (c. 639 to 647 CE) under Emperor Songtsen Gampo, the Jokhang enshrines the life-sized gilded bronze Jowo Shakyamuni (depicting the Buddha at age twelve, brought to Tibet by Tang Princess Wencheng in 641 CE), venerated by Tibetans as carrying the living presence of Shakyamuni himself. Unlike monasteries tied to a single school, the Jokhang serves as the universal sacred heart for all Tibetan Buddhist lineages.
What is the historical meaning behind the Tibetan saying First came the Jokhang, and only afterward came Lhasa
Before the 7th century, this river basin was called Rasa (Land of Goats). When Emperor Songtsen Gampo used herds of white goats to carry earth filling Wotang Lake to build the Jokhang and enshrine the sacred Buddha statues, monastic residences, markets, and pilgrim trails grew up around the temple along the circular Barkhor street, transforming Rasa into Lhasa (Land of the Buddhas and Deities).
Why does the main gate of Jokhang Temple face West instead of South
Unlike nearly all Chinese Mahayana temples and unlike Potala Palace, which sit north and face south, the central sanctuary of the Jokhang sits East and faces due West onto Barkhor Square. According to Tibetan historical tradition, this westward facing honors both the Kingdom of Nepal (homeland of Princess Bhrikuti, who initiated the temple) and the sacred Buddhist homeland of India to the southwest.
What are the three Kora circumambulation circuits centered on Jokhang Temple
The Jokhang forms the central axis of Lhasa's three concentric clockwise pilgrimage paths: the inner Nangkor (about 500 meters along the prayer-wheel corridor immediately encircling the main shrine hall inside the temple), the middle Barkhor (about 1 kilometer tracing the historic polygonal street around the monastery), and the outer Lingkor (about 8 kilometers encompassing old Lhasa, Iron Hill, and Potala Palace).
What historical treaty is inscribed on the ancient stone stele outside the west gate of Jokhang Temple
Protected inside a stone enclosure on the western plaza stands the 4.78-meter Tang-Tibet Alliance Stele (Uncle-Nephew Alliance Stele), erected in 823 CE during the reigns of Tang Emperor Muzong and Tibetan Emperor Ralpachen. Carved bilingually in Tibetan and classical Chinese, it records the solemn peace treaty and border agreement between the Tang Empire and the Tibetan Empire, surviving as one of Asia's most important bilingual historical monuments.