Jokhang Temple
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Located in the centre of old Lhasa city, the Johkang Monastery is a prime seat of the Gelugpa (Yellow) of the Tibetan Buddhism. It was first built in 647AD. In 643AD, eighteen-year-old Princess Wencheng in Tang Dynasty reached Lhasa. She brought with her a life-sized statue of Sakyamuni at the age of 12. It was believed that the statue was modeled according to the appearance of Sakyamuni and was consecrated by Sakyamuni himself. There were three life-sized statues of Sakyamuni in the world. One is eight years old, another twelve years old and the last eighteen years old. Originally, the life-sized statue of Sakyamuni aged 16 was in India, however, it sank into the Indian Ocean in the religious war. Thus, the life-sized statue of Sakyamuni aged 12 was the most precious one. Songtsen Gampo constructed the Ramoche Monastery for Princess Wencheng to house the statue, and he also built the Johkang Monastey for Nepalese Princess Khidzun. When the Princess Jicheng brought the statue of Sakyamuni from the Ramoche Monastery to the Jokhang Monastery, it became the worshiping centre. After years of expansion, the Jokhang Monastery has today's scale.
History
In the 7th century AD, China was under the reign of the Tang Dynasty. The time when Emperor Taizong Li Shimin reigned is called "Golden Years of Zhenguan"( Zhenguan, the reign title of Emperor Taizong),and it was a long period of 22 years(627AD-649AD)when the Tang Empire became the first power in Asia. At the same time, Tibet was a small country on the frontier governed by Songsten Gampo who succeeded as the king at the age of 13. However, under the administration of Songsten Gampo, national strength of Tibet was so powerful that no country could parallel it except the Tang Dynasty. Songtsen Gampo was a statesman of vision. First, Songtsen Gampo married the Nepaleae Princess Khidzun and then, twice he sent a minister to Chang'an(present-day xi'an) for a Tang Princess to marry and finally the Princess Wencheng was betrothed to him.
In 641AD, 16-year-old Princess Wencheng and her envoys, maidservants journeyed to Tibet. She brought with her a great number of dowries, advanced culture and techniques. Having endured the hardships of the long journey, the Princess Wencheng reached Lhasa in 643AD and married Songsten Gampo who was 29 years old and has been waiting for her for 3 years. The two beautiful princesses Khidzun, Wencheng were from the countries whose people believe in Buddhism. When they came to Tibet, each of them brought with her a valuable statue of Sakyamuni as the most precious dowry. However, at that time, there was no palace in Lhasa, even no constant house, Tibetans all lived in the tents, so how to house the statue was a tough problem. With the suggestion of the Princes Wencheng, Songsten Gampo constructed the Ramoche Monastery for her to house the statue of Sakyamuni, the gate of the monastery faced east to show the princess's nostalgia for her homeland. When Songsten Gampo built the Ramoche Monastery for the Princess Wencheng,the Princess Khidzun wanted to built a monastery to house the statue which was brought by herself too. However, the construction of the monastery fell down at night the moment it was built in the daytime. At her wits' end, the Princess Khidzun turned to the Princess Wencheng who was graced with both virtues and talents for help. The Princess Wencheng knew "fengshui" very well and had an intimate knowledge of "bagua", she reckoned that the terrain of Tibet just like a Rakshas witch lying on her back, with the Wotang Lake of Lhasa being her heart and water being her blood. She contended that a monastery should be built on the lake to get rid of evils .Hence came to the existence of the monastery which has a history of thousands years.
The Jokhang Monastery suffered from two serious disasters. One was the campaign of forbidding Buddhism which was initiated by the nobles who believed in the primitive Bon religion in the late of 7th century; the other was the second campaign of forbidding Buddhism which was launched by Langdama in the middle of 9th century. During the campaign, the Jokhang Monastery had come down to a slaughterhouse, or it was forced to close. Twice the statue of Sakyamuni was buried under the ground.
Legend
Legend has it that Lhasa was a wasteland at that time. By observing the environment of Lhasa, the Princess Wencheng reckoned according to Chinese astrology that the wasteland which Lhasa located was the gate of dragon，so a monastery should be built on the wasteland to get rid of the dragon. Thus, the Jokhang Monastery, which was the first monastery to enshrine the statue of the Buddha was built with the support of Songtsen Gampo. The monastery is the product of Han, Tibetan and Nepalese architectural techniques. Visitors will be excited to see various exotic and sacred sculptures. For example, on the southeastern corner of the Jokhang monastery, standing a statue of Heavenly King carved out of stone , and a big eagle engraved from stone standing on the southwestern corner; a stone tower is built on the western part and stone lion stands erect on the northern part. Visitors can see these relics on each part of the outside wall of the Jokhang Moastery. When the monastery was built, it attracted pilgrims from every corner of Tibet to worship the Buddha. Afterwards, inns, residences for workers were gradually emerged around the monastery, thus the Barkhor Street came into being as the monastery being in the center. That was the embryonic form of Lhasa. Originally, the monastery was named Ruosa and the Lhasa named after Ruosa. "Ruosa" was translated into Chinese "Ro" according to pronunciation. So Lhasa was called "Rosa" in some historical books. That is why we know the Jokhang Monastery before Lhasa.
There was a legend that the site which the Jokhang Monastery located was a lake at the earliest time. Songtsen Gampo made a promise to the Princess Khidzun by the lake that a monastery should be built where the ring has fallen .It so happened that the ring dropped into the lake ,immediately, the surface of the lake was full of light net and a 9-level white tower appeared among the light net. So an immense construction works began on the basis of thousands of goats who carried clay for the construction of the monastery. It took 3 years to built the Jokhang Monastery, the monastery was originally named Ruosa in memory of the achievements of goats , for "goat" means "Ruo" and "clay" means "Sa" in the Tibetan language. The monastery was renamed "Zhulakang"( the sutra hall) and also called "Juekang"( the Buddha hall) meaning the monastery was built by the goats who carried clay. It is said that the name "Jokhang" has a relationship with the "the Great Prayer Festival" which began in 15 century.
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