Tibet — Jokhang Temple
Lhasa – Jokhang Temple
Today is the day we arrived in Lhasa. After asking the hotel front desk about Lhasa’s tourist attractions, we decided to explore the local temple culture. We signed up for a one-day tour covering both Potala Palace and Jokhang Temple. Here, I’ll mainly introduce Jokhang Temple.
The next day, we set out early in the morning, visited Potala Palace first, and after a meal, headed to Jokhang Temple. Along the way, the guide shared stories and legends about Tibet.
Jokhang Temple, also known as ‘Zuglagkang’ or ‘Jokhang’ (meaning ‘Buddha Hall’ in Tibetan), is a Tibetan Buddhist temple located in the center of Lhasa’s old quarter. Entering the small square in front of the temple, you can see the entire structure. The first thing that catches your eye are two stone steles enclosed by a wall, inscribed in both Tibetan and Chinese. They are called the Tang-Tibet Alliance Stele. The steles show some weathering, but most of the inscriptions are still legible. Beside them grows a willow tree, said to have been planted by Princess Wencheng herself; locals call it the Princess Willow.
Stepping inside Jokhang Temple, there is only a small open area in the middle. To reach the inner halls, a narrow passageway has a large water tank placed beside it, filled with coins and banknotes tossed in by devotees. A long queue snakes through the cramped corridor leading to the inner sanctum. Slowly and orderly, we moved along with many devout Tibetans and tourists. Inside, butter lamps filled the air with swirling smoke and a strong, heady scent. Within the temple are Tibetan-style murals, including ‘Princess Wencheng Coming to Tibet’ and ‘The Construction of Jokhang Temple’.
The temple houses: the Maitreya Buddha Hall, whose main image is a small, exquisitely crafted Maitreya statue; the Avalokiteshvara Hall, with a small image of the bodhisattva riding a lion; the King’s Hall, featuring statues of Tibetan kings Songtsen Gampo, Trisong Detsen, and Ralpachen; the Tara Hall, where a large statue of Tara sits in the center; and the Amitabha Buddha Hall, also sometimes called the ‘Hall of Karmic Obstacles.’ Because this hall is located right before the Shakyamuni Hall, devotees pray here to remove any hindrances to their worship of Shakyamuni. There is also a statue of Shakyamuni at the age of twelve, which legend says was brought by Princess Wencheng from Chang’an, the Tang capital, and was the very first Buddha image to enter the Land of Snows.
I think, for most people standing before the gate of Jokhang Temple for the first time, witnessing so many devout believers—men and women, young and old—performing grand prostrations, repeatedly bowing and touching their foreheads to the ground, some even having traveled for months from faraway places doing full-body prostrations, worshiping the Buddha with this most reverential practice... Their deep faith, and such a scene of devotion, moves even non-Buddhists like us, and allows us to feel the awe that faith can inspire. As an ordinary person, I am someone who believes in everything, yet is not truly devout in anything.
