Barkhor Quarter

The Barkhor circuit is the outer pilgrim circumambulation route around the Jokhang Temple, and for practising Tibetan Buddhists it is one of the most sacred walkways in the world. The circuit — a roughly circular route of about 800 metres — is walked clockwise, as required by Buddhist convention, by a continuous stream of pilgrims who may complete dozens or hundreds of circuits as an act of devotion. Prostrating pilgrims — measuring the circuit with their bodies — move through the crowd at a slower pace.

The Jokhang Temple at the circuit's centre was founded in the 7th century CE during the reign of King Songtsen Gampo, the Tibetan ruler who is credited with introducing Buddhism to Tibet. The temple's central image — the Jowo Rinpoche, a gilded statue of the Shakyamuni Buddha at age 12 — is believed to have been brought to Tibet by the Nepalese princess Bhrikuti, one of Songtsen Gampo's wives, and is the single most venerated object in Tibetan Buddhism. The queue to approach the Jowo Rinpoche can extend for hours.

The surrounding old-town fabric — courtyard houses of whitewashed rammed earth, wooden-framed upper floors with carved cornices, narrow lanes smelling of juniper incense and yak butter — represents the most intact surviving example of traditional Lhasa urban architecture. Much of old Lhasa was rebuilt in the post-1950 period; the Barkhor quarter retains the highest concentration of pre-1950 structures remaining in the city.

The market stalls on the Barkhor circuit sell religious supplies (prayer flags, kata scarves, incense), handicrafts, turquoise jewellery, and Tibetan clothing — a commercial zone that has been sustained by the pilgrim trade for over a millennium.