Barkhor Street
八廓街
Situated in the ancient part of Lhasa city, Barkhor Street is circular, encompassing the Jokhang Temple . It is one of the must-see places in Tibet.
In the 7 th century, the king of Tibet, Songtsen Gampo (617-650 AD) built the Jokhang Temple to house the statue of Sakyamuni, which made the Jokhang Temple a sacred place for the Tibetan Buddhists. Tibetans walked clockwise round the Jokhang Temple to pay their respects to Sakyamuni, which is how the Barkhor Street became established as the Sacred Way in Tibet. Every day, Buddhist pilgrims come from every corner of Tibet and other provinces and progress along the Barkhor Street by walking, or crawling in full-body length to worship Sakyamuni. Barkhor is a place where you can experience the religious fervor of Tibet.
It is in the Barkhor area of Lhasa where visitors will find intact traditional style streets. Roads are paved with stones, ground by hand. All houses are in traditional Tibetan style with colorful prayer flags fluttering in the breeze. Most Tibetan people are wearing their traditional Tibetan dresses. The senior citizens walk slowly, quietly chanting a piece of scripture whilst revolving their prayer wheels. Barkhor is a place where you will experience the culture and the customs of Tibet in a microcosm.
For the continuous stream of visitors, Barkhor also is a market. Almost all houses facing the streets have become shops. Besides these shops, there are more than one thousand stalls along the street and down the alleyways. They sell articles for daily use, like butter, barley wine, meat, Tibetan shoes, Tibetan knives; they also sell articles for religious use, like Thangka, prayer wheels, prayer flags etc. Goods imported from India, Nepal and many other countries can be found here as well.
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