Barkhor Pilgrim Circuit

1 km clockwise pilgrim circuit around the Jokhang Temple. Pilgrims prostrate themselves around the route; Tibetan-traditional shopping plus daily life.

The Barkhor is the intermediate pilgrim circuit around the Jokhang Temple, one of three concentric kora routes in Lhasa — the innermost (Nangkor) runs through the temple itself, the Barkhor circles the building and its immediate neighbourhood, and the outer Lingkor traditionally encircled the entire old city. Of the three, the Barkhor is the one most integrated with daily Lhasa life and the most accessible to outside visitors. The circuit is approximately one kilometre, always followed clockwise in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, and runs along a cobbled street lined with shops, stalls, tea houses, and residences.

Pilgrims come from across the Tibetan plateau — many travelling significant distances — to circumambulate the Barkhor, some walking normally with prayer beads and prayer wheels, others undertaking full-body prostrations around the entire circuit. The prostration kora involves lying flat on the ground with arms extended, rising, stepping forward to where the hands reached, and repeating. The full circuit performed this way takes several hours. Some pilgrims undertake the prostration circuit over multiple days; the worn stone paving at the most-trafficked sections bears the marks of generations of repeated movement.

The surrounding market is the main commercial zone for Tibetan-traditional goods in Lhasa: religious objects (prayer flags, butter lamps, incense), jewellery, clothing, and the full range of Tibetan souvenir production. The density of genuine daily-life activity — elderly residents turning prayer wheels, women carrying provisions from the market, monks passing through — gives the Barkhor a different character from a conventional tourist street. The best times are dawn, when the earliest pilgrims begin their circuits before most shops open, and dusk, when the circuit fills again with people completing prayers at the end of the day.