Jokhang Temple (ར་ས་འཕྲུལ་སྣང་གཙུག་ལག་ཁང་། or རྒྱ་སྟག་ར་མོ་ཆེ། in Tibetan)
Last time, we published an article about the three major cultures of Tibet, and we decided to introduce some famous monasteries along with their stories.
First, if you’ve traveled in Tibet, you’ve likely seen Tibetans performing full-body prostration pilgrimages along the roads. But do you know where they’re headed? Today, let me explain it to you guys.
This practice is called long-prostration pilgrimage to the center (བརྐྱངས་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ནས་དབུས་མཇལ།). Many Tibetans perform these pilgrimages to Lhasa, while others journey to sacred mountains. However, Lhasa is usually their first stop.
You might wonder, Why do so many Tibetans undertake such arduous pilgrimages to Lhasa? For those coming from Sichuan or Gansu, the journey can take one or even two months. Are they crazy? At first, me too, pondered this question for years—but now I understand.
Though Jokhang Temple isn’t the largest in Tibet, it holds the deepest spiritual significance for Tibetans. They aspire to pay homage to Jowo (the sacred Buddha statue) at least once a year. The Jowo Shakyamuni is the most revered Buddha image in Jokhang Temple. If you visit in November or December, you’ll witness Tibetans forming long queues outside the temple, some waking as early as 3 or 4 a.m. just to see the Jowo and pray for the well-being of all beings.
There are two Jokhang Temples in Lhasa:
* The main Jokhang Temple (ར་ས་འཕྲུལ་སྣང་གཙུག་ལག་ཁང་།)
* The smaller Ramoche Temple (རྒྱ་སྟག་ར་མོ་ཆེ།)
Similarly, there are two sacred Jowo statues:
The Jowo Shakyamuni (ཇོ་བོ་ཤཱཀྱ་མུ་ནེ།), depicting Buddha at age 12, was brought to Tibet by Princess Wencheng or Gyalsa ( རྒྱ་བཟའ། )(daughter of Emperor Taizong of Tang) as part of her dowry to King Songtsen Gampo. This statue now resides in the main Jokhang Temple.
The Jowo Mikyö Dorje (ཇོ་བོ་མི་བསྐྱོད་རྡོ་རྗེ།), depicting Buddha at age 8, was brought by Princess Bhrikuti or Waysa ( བལ་བཟའ། ) of Nepal, also as a dowry to Songtsen Gampo. This statue is enshrined in Ramoche Temple.
Then do you know why there are so many Tibetans in Lhasa during November and December? See you next time.
