Tibet’s Most Sacred Temple

The Jokhang is undoubtedly the most revered temple in Lhasa, even in all of Tibet. Its role is so crucial that the urban development of Lhasa has centered around the Jokhang for over a millennium. Today the Jokhang is an extensive complex of temple buildings with courtyards, monks’ quarters, offices, and kitchens. It has been constructed in several stages since Lhasa became the Tibetan capital during the seventh century after Emperor Songtsen Gampo (ca. 605-649), through numerous military campaigns to unify Tibet and expand Tibetan territory, managed the feat of confederating tribes.

Construction Phases of the Jokhang

Although shrouded in entangled myths and traditions, the history of the successive construction phases of the Jokhang may be clarified by a comparison with the architecture of Trandruk, Thundering Falcon, Tibet’s earliest temple in the Yarlung Valley; Ramoche in Lhasa; and the Katsel temple just north of Lhasa. What is striking in these three temples attributed to the imperial period is the tall trapezoid structure at the center: the principal chapel with a roof twenty to twenty-three feet (six to seven meters) high. The inclined walls of the sides of the trapezoid afford protection in the earthquake-prone zone of the Himalayas, for such walls are broader and heavier at the base. Each trapezoid structure is surrounded by a narrow corridor for circumambulation (kora) (figs. 2 and 3).

The construction of this central structure destined to become the Jowo chapel, with the procession corridor forming the two adjacent chapels, initially extended eastward and upward to another floor, doubling it in volume.1 Then, surrounding this inner square, the nangkor, or inner procession corridor, was added between the tenth and thirteenth centuries. During the thirteenth to fourteenth centuries, the inner courtyard was converted into an assembly hall, a third floor was added, and three of the four gilded copper roofs were constructed. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Jokhang was completed with two more outer courtyards, four new entrances, a new main entrance porch, and an outdoor assembly square (fig. 4).2

Political and Religious History

Reflecting on these phases, it is apparent that the Jokhang evolved toward the architecture of a vihara, a square Indian temple with a cloistered courtyard, fifty-nine by fifty-nine feet (eighteen by eighteen meters), surrounded by small chapels or monks’ cells.3 Precisely when this occurred is not certain. Was this during the period of the reign of Songtsen Gampo or later generations? No data from Songtsen’s lifetime confirms his role as a Buddhist sovereign. Historic records describe his military prowess and political acumen.

In 641, Songtsen effectively installed the Licchavi King Narendradeva (r. 643–679) on the throne of Nepal.4 Following a coup d’état in Nepal, Narendradeva and his court had taken refuge in Lhasa since about 624. According to later Tibetan tradition, the foundation of the Jokhang is attributed to Songtsen assisted by a Nepalese princess, known in Tibetan as “royal lady” Tritsun, who may have been with Narendradeva’s court in Tibet.5 Although the historical existence of the Nepalese princess has long been questioned, ample evidence supports active exchanges—political, cultural, and commercial—between Tibet and Nepal at this time. The earliest wooden carved lintels of the Jokhang are to be understood as a concrete reflection of Newar artists and artisans working in Tibet during the seventh to eighth century (fig. 5).

Later Tibetan historical tradition magnifies the promotion of Buddhism by Songtsen, the Nepalese princess, and a very young Chinese princess who arrived in Lhasa in 641 and married Songtsen in 646, three years before he died.6 The early construction of several Buddhist temples in Tibet has been related to geomantic criteria attributed to the Chinese bride, who survived long after Songtsen’s death; her funeral is recorded in 683–684 CE.7

Analysis and surveys by architectural historians confirm that ancient models of temples such as Tibet’s first Buddhist temple, Tandruk, evolved into a vihara structure like the Jokhang.8 The vihara was a model in Gupta India (320–600), Cave 2 at Ajanta (late sixth century) (fig. 6), and still in use under the Pala dynasty (750–1161). Other early temples like the Ramoche, attributed to the Chinese bride, and Katsel also conform to the early architectural models.9 Tandruk and Katsel figure among the thirteen temples mapped on an elaborate geomantic schema of concentric zones centered around the Jokhang—even extending as far southeast as present-day Bhutan and east to Kham—all attributed to Songtsen by later tradition.10

Luckily, a clear picture emerges by virtue of historic edicts and, above all, the Tibetan inscriptions carved on stone pillars erected at the founding of temples in the eighth and ninth centuries, such as Samye in 779 and Karchung (ca. 800–815), which record the existence of many Buddhist institutions throughout Tibet at the time.11 Emperor Tri Songdetsen (742–ca. 800) declared Buddhism the official religion of the Tibetan Empire in 781, swearing to preserve Buddhism and actively support Tibetan monks.12 The Old Tibetan Chronicle, probably compiled around 800–840, was the first to describe the flourishing of Buddhism in reference to the reign of Tri Songdetsen: “The incomparable religion of the Buddha had been received and there were sanctuaries in many parts of the land.”13

Civil disorder in the mid-ninth century led to the dissolution of the Tibetan Empire, and the scions of the dynasty fled central Tibet. In about 1000 a revival of Buddhism was promoted at Toling in western Tibet. The flame of Buddhism was rekindled in central Tibet in the mid-eleventh century, when Tibetans coming from both western and eastern Tibet, as well as Indian and Nepalese monks and scholars, resumed teaching.

Zangkar Lotsawa, the Translator of Zanskar, studied Buddhism in Toling. After studies in Kashmir, he traveled toward Lhasa, where in 1076 he initiated a program of major renovation inside the Jokhang resulting in the present layout of the ground floor and second floor.14 He organized renovations inside the Jowo chapel, including the addition of the twenty-foot-tall (six meters) enthroned Vairochana in clay, called Tubpa Gangchen Tsogyel (Vairochana of the Glacier Lake) (fig. 7), accompanied by six male and six female bodhisattvas15 standing behind him against the walls. The “Jowo,” the cast-metal sculpture of Shakyamuni, is enthroned in the middle of the chapel. Mural paintings, such as that of Vasudhara (fig. 8), reflecting the style of Pala India, are also from that time.

Although much damaged, the mural shows compositions with a main central deity (fig. 9), and scrolling floral/vegetal motifs accommodating the seated attendants in the lower register are lively. In a very different palette is a mural of Jambhala as well as Vairochana and attendants on the walls of the Zhelre Lhakhang (literally, the chapel to revere the countenance of the Jowo Shakyamuni sculpture), situated on the upper level of the Jokhang. The bodhisattva seated below Vairochana shows the Pala characteristics of tiered crown with high piled chignon, the three-quarter view of the face with extended eye, the dip of the upper eyelid, and the elongated slender body proportions.

During a period of religious factionalism and great civil disturbance in Lhasa, the temple was damaged by a major fire in 1160. In the mid-thirteenth century, the Jowo sculpture was adorned by a sculpted throne back made by the Nepalese artist Anige (1245–1306) at the request of Shakya Zangpo, then acting abbot of Sakya monastery.16 Subsequently, the Pakmodrupa, ruling from Nedong, continued fervent support of the Jokhang in the fourteenth century. During their reign, the rulers of the Yatse Kingdom in western Nepal commissioned gilt-copper roofs over two portions of the Jokhang, undoubtedly the work of Nepalese artisans.

Although Lhasa lost its status as the capital after Zhang Rinpoche’s demise, it regained prominence with the establishment of the Geluk tradition by Tsongkhapa (1357–1419) and the founding of the three major monasteries Ganden, Sera, and Drepung, all of which supported the Jokhang. The next phase of renovation in the Jokhang was led by the Fifth Dalai Lama (1617–1682) (fig. 10), whose government attracted many cosmopolitan visitors and instituted major annual ritual celebrations in Lhasa. The wealth of the Geluk government during the Fifth Dalai Lama’s reign and the great influx of pilgrims to the Jokhang brought donations of sculptures as well as renovations, notably the refurbishment of the Jowo’s throne by Newar artisans. The following Dalai Lamas and the great lay-ruler Polhane (1689–1747) all made donations of special sculptures and maintained the Jokhang throughout the period of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The early twentieth century witnessed the arrival of the British Younghusband expedition in 1904 and Chinese armed forces led by Zhao Erfeng (1845–1911). During the battles, artillery damaged the Jokhang’s gilded copper roofs, but with the expulsion of the troops, the Thirteenth Dalai Lama (1876–1933) rapidly restored the temple to its former splendor as pilgrims once more thronged the site. The Reting Regent and the Fourteenth Dalai Lama (b. 1935) likewise contributed to the glory of the Jokhang. Subsequently, the upper apartments were renovated and a new gilded copper roof fabricated. The Cultural Revolution (1966–1977) brought much destruction, notably due to extensive fires.17 Sweeping renovations were made before Tibet opened to foreign tourists in about 1980, bringing the monument to world attention. In 2000 the Jokhang was nominated to the UNESCO World Heritage List of Monuments as part of the Potala Palace. On February 17, 2018, as Lhasa started Losar celebrations, a giant fire that broke out in the upper story of the Jokhang imperiled the Jowo Shakyamuni (fig. 11). In spring 2018, the Jokhang reopened to pilgrims and devotees, and like a phoenix, the Jowo Rinpoche emerged in full glory, as if unscathed by the flames.