Lhasa Things to Do

At the Barkhor are a lot of stalls and shops, where you can buy almost everything, for example we saw this stall with colourfull new thangka's.

These rectangular thangkas are religious paintings on cotton or linen, that can be rolled up. Red or yellow silk is used for the border and another piece of silk or brocade serves as a mount. The rolled thangkas can easy be transported by nomads and travelling Buddhist monks. Often the thangka have a depiction of the life of Buddha.

The Jokhang Temple is surrounded by the Barkhor. The Barkhor is the inner pilgrim circuit of Lhasa, shaped in the form of an octagon. You have to go round in the clockwise direction.

Along the Barkhor you can find a lot of marketstalls, shops and streetvendors. It is a very lifely place to go and to spend some time to look at the the daily life of the Tibetan people and devotees or do some shopping.

In the Sera Monastery, as in all monasteries, you can find butter lamps, burning perpetually before statues and images. The lamps are replenished by the dignitaires or villagers.

In front of statues, thangkas and stupas in Tibet you will find vessels for reception of offerings from devotees, usually containing five different elements: water, flowerseeds, incense, tsampa and butter for the lamps. These five kinds of offerings stand for the five aspects of wisdom and the five senses, the dhyani-Buddhas.

In contrast to other Tibetan monasteries, the Jokhang Temple is used by people of all the different sects of Buddhism and has not an own monastic community. All kind of pilgrims with different dialects, faces, clothes and colours come to visit the Temple and the Barkhor.

At the square in front of the Jokhang Temple you see a lot of small streetstalls, selling goods at the pilgrims, like scarfs, flags and thangkas. From the Temple you have a good view at this always busy square.

At the top of the Jokhang Temple you can have a very close look at the rich ornamented corners of the gilded bronze roof. It's amazing to see the many tiny details of this piece of art.

In Brahmin mythology is told, that Vishvakarman, the architect of the universe, blacksmith and jeweller, god and patron of the manual crafts, sculpted himself one of the most famous Buddhas in the temple. The sculptor of these ornaments looked also be inspired by this god of the manual crafts.

On top of the Jokhang temple in Lhasa, are two ghazelles and the dharma wheel in between. This gilded wheel of law flanked by the ghazelles above the entrances to the sanctuaries is a rememberance of Buddha's first sermon, given in the park of the Ghazelles at Sernath near Benares.

At the left side of the picture you can see the so called gyeltsen or victory standard with pages of the holy scripture inside.

When you visit the Jokhang Temple, you have to go up. There you will have a fascinating look at the splendid roofs covered with gilded bronze and its ornaments from a short distance, like the ganjiras filled with prayers and the ghazelles at both sides of the great wheel of law.

Every Tibetan bard or poet has sung of the golden roof of the Jokhang Temple and the countless chapels, housing precious relics. The opulence of the temple matches that of a relic.

The Jokhang Temple was founded in 650 by Songtsen Gampo. The main hall -with a famous sitting statue of Sakyamuni- is surrounded by chapels dedicated to Buddhist deities and Tibetan kings and queens.

The Jokhang Temple is four storeys high. On the roof you have a fantastic view at the Potala Palace. Also you can have a good look at the marvellous decorations on the rooftops of the Jokhang Temple.