11 Lhasa Day-1

3rd November 2025 - Lhasa Local Tour (Day-1) 

Today we were just 3 from our Group (of 10) going around with our Guide Jamyang, for some local sightseeing. The Others (7) went for the Namtso Lake Tour today. We set out from our Shamabal Palace Hotel at around 9:30 am after breakfast.  Our Hotel is very close to the Jokhang Temple - just about 500M walk. The narrow streets outside were crowded with thousands of Pilgrims ; all Walking briskly towards the Jokhang Temple. Many of them were whirling small hand-held prayer wheels and saying some silent Buddhist prayer between their lips. Most were Tibetans, I think, perhaps many were visiting Lhasa, as pilgrims from regional towns of Tibet-China. Within 15 mins we reached the huge open Plaza  in front of Jokhang Temple. Crowds were lined up in a protected fenced area there in front of the temple doing "Kora" on Yoga mattresses. Kora being a Prostration on the floor (somewhat like our Surya Namaskara, that we do in our Yoga in India). Seeing so many Pilgrims there ,I asked Jamyang if this was any special day or season for these crowds? He answered it is always crowded here, as Jokhang was a major Boddhist Temple in entire Tibet. 

Below Cut-Paste from the Wikipedia page on Jokhang Temple:

The Jokhang (Tibetan: ཇོ་ཁང།, Chinese: 大昭寺), historically known as the Rasa Trulnang (ra sa 'phrul snang)[1] or Qoikang Monastery or Zuglagkang (Tibetan: གཙུག་ལག་ཁང༌།, Wylie: gtsug-lag-khang, ZWPY: Zuglagkang or Tsuklakang), is considered the "heart of Lhasa".[2] The Jokhang consists of a Tibetan Buddhist temple, its temple complex, and a Gelug school monastery. Located in Barkhor Square, it was built in c.640 by King Songsten Gampo to house the Jowo Mikyo Dorje,[3] a statue of Akshobhya Buddha, brought to Tibet by his Nepalese queen,[2] Bhrikuti. Another statue, the Jowo Shakyamuni, brought by his Tang Chinese queen Wencheng, is currently housed in the temple[2] and the Jowo Mikyo Dorje is housed in the Ramoche, in Lhasa.

Many Nepalese and Indian artists and craftsmen worked on the temple's original design and construction.[4] Around the 14th century, the temple was associated with the Vajrasana in India.[5] In the 18th century the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing dynasty, following the Nepalese Gorkha invasion of Tibet in 1792, did not allow the Nepalese to visit this temple [citation needed] and it became an exclusive place of worship for the Tibetans. Early into the Cultural Revolution, the Red Guards attacked the Jokhang temple in 1966 and for a decade there was no worship. Renovation of the Jokhang took place from 1972 to 1980. In 2000, the Jokhang became a UNESCO World Heritage Site as an extension of the Potala Palace, which has been a World Heritage Site since 1994. After its UNESCO status was conferred, PRC China redeveloped parts of the World Heritage Sites in Lhasa, and the Barkhor Square in front of the temple was partially demolished and encroached upon.[6]

For more details see Wikipedia Link: Jokhang - Wikipedia