Jokhang

Tibetan name
Tibetan script : ཇོ་ ཁང ། གཙུག་ ལག་ ཁང །
Wylie transliteration : jo khang, gtsug lay khang
Pronunciation in IPA : [ tɕʰòkaŋ], [tsúklakaŋ ]
Official transcription of the PRCh : Qokang, Zuglagkang
THDL transcription : Jokhang, Tsuklakkhang
Other spellings: Jokang, Jokhang; Tsuklakhang, Tsuglakhang
Chinese name
Traditional : 大昭寺
Simplified : 大昭寺
Pinyin : Dàzhāo Sì

The Jokhang Temple in Lhasa

The Jokhang is the most important shrine within the Lhasa Tsuglagkhang and is located in the middle of the old town of Lhasa , the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China . For the Tibetans it forms a kind of central shrine to which one should make a pilgrimage at least once in a lifetime.

Legends and history

One corner of the Jokhang sanctuary

According to legend, the Jokhang was built in 639 by King Songtsen Gampo's Nepalese wife, Princess Bhrikuti (Tib .: khri btsun) after the milk lake (Tib .: 'o thang gi mtsho), which was formerly located at this point, with the help of the divination of Songtsen Gampo's Chinese wife Wen Cheng had been drained. The building, which was completed between 642 and 653, was completed by the Nepalese artists who came to the snow country with Bhrikuti. Originally, it should have been a relatively small building. The Jokhang was later named Lhasa Tsuglagkhang when the Jokhang complex was later expanded to include numerous outbuildings and additional floors, presumably especially during the time of Tsongkhapa (1357-1419) . The entire facility thus had an area of around 21,500 m². and from this time on it formed the place to hold the “great prayer” of the so-called Mönlam Chenmo (Tib .: smon lam chen mo).

During the uprising of 1959, the People's Liberation Army was careful not to damage the temple, but during the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, the Jokhang was looted with the participation of the people of Lhasa and eventually used as the headquarters of the Red Guards, as well as a guest house and movie theater.

In 1981 the Jokhang was placed under national monument protection. In 2000, he was together with the Potala Palace as "Historic Ensemble of the Potala Palace in Lhasa" to UNESCO - World Heritage declared. In 2001 the Norbulingka was added.

A fire broke out in the temple in the evening hours on February 17, 2018, one day after traditional Tibetan New Year celebrations began . The first official reports in China did not provide any information about the specific damage.

architecture

The roof, covered with gilded bronze tiles, is decorated with a Dharma wheel flanked by gazelles . In the main hall there is, among other things, the gilded statue of Jobo Shakyamuni, a special form of Buddha Shakyamuni with bodhisattva jewelry, as well as statues of Avalokiteshvara, Maitreya and Padmasambhava as well as Songtsen Gampo and his two wives, the Chinese Wen Cheng and the Nepalese Bhrikuti.

City map of the old town of Lhasa

The Jokhang in the center is surrounded by a walkway with prayer wheels, called Nangkhor ('inner way') - the 'middle' way is the pilgrimage route of the Barkhor around the monastery, the outer way of the Lingkhor around the old town.

The complex is a prime example of Tibetan architecture and has been described in detail several times.

literature

Andre Alexander: The Temples of Lhasa. Tibetan Buddhist Architecture from the 7th to the 21st Century . Serindia, Chicago 2005.
F. Spencer Chapman: Lhasa the Holy City . R. & R. Clark, London 1940, reprint ISBN 0-8369-6712-7 ; Chinese translation (2004) ISBN 7-80057-460-1 .
Karl-Heinz Everding: Tibet. Lamaistic monastery culture, nomadic way of life and rural everyday life on the "roof of the world" . DuMont art travel guide, Ostfildern 2009.
Michael Henss: Tibet. The cultural monuments . OO (1981).
Knut Larsen, Amund Sinding-Larsen: The Lhasa Atlas. Traditional Tibetan Architecture and Townscape . Shambala, Boston 2001.
Rong Ma: Han and Tibetan Residential Patterns in Lhasa . In: The China Quarterly , 128, December 1991, pp. 814-835.
Ernst Schäfer: Festival of the White Veil . Braunschweig 1949.
Vladimir Sis, Josef Vaniš : The way to Lhasa. Images from Tibet . Artia Publishing House, Prague 1956.
Roberto Vitali: Early Temples of Central Tibet . Serindia, London 1990.
L. Austine Waddell: Lhasa ad its Mysteris . London 1905.
Nyi ma tshe ring ཉི་མ་ ཚེ་ རིང: lha ldan gtsug lag khang gi gnas bshad mdor bsdus bzhugs so ལྷ་ ལྡན་ གཙུག་ལག་ཁང་ གི་ གནས་ བཤད་ མདོར་བསྡུས་ བཞུགས་ སོ. ('Overview of the Jokhang'). Lhasa 2005, ISBN 7-223-01747-3 ; Chinese edition: Dàzhāo Sì jiǎnjiè大昭寺简介, Lhasa, Xīzàng rénmín chūbǎnshè 西藏人民出版社 2004, ISBN 7-223-00042-2 .
Ài'ěrjídì 艾尔极地 (Ed.): Dài nǐ yóu Dàzhāo Sì带你游大昭寺 / Follow Me to the Jokhang Temple. Lhasa, Xīzàng rénmín chūbǎnshè 西藏人民出版社, 2001, ISBN 7-223-01353-2 .

Web links

Commons : Jokhang - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Entry on the UNESCO World Heritage Center website ( English and French ).

Individual evidence

↑ Also called Jokhang Temple or Jokhang Monastery; with Heinrich Harrer in his book Seven Years in Tibet and with Erich Schäfer in Tibet and Central Asia also "Cathedral". The Chinese name, Dàzhāo Sì大昭寺, suggests a close connection with the Ramoqê temple (ra mo che dgon pa) , which is called Xiǎozhāo Sì小昭寺in Chinese .
↑ Guojia cèhuìjú diming yánjiūsuǒ国家测绘局地名研究所, Xizang diming西藏地名/ bod ljongs sa ming བོད་ ལྗོངས་ ས་ མིང (Tibetan place names) , Beijing, Zhōngguó Zàngxué chūbǎnshè中国藏学出版社1995, ISBN 7-80057- 284-6 , p. 89.
^ Friedemann Berger : Faces of Tibet . 2nd Edition. Foreign Language Literature Publishing House, Beijing 2003, ISBN 7-119-01343-2 , p. 87.
↑ Tibetan sanctuary destroyed by fire . Spiegel Online, February 18, 2018. Chris Buckley: Fire Strikes Hallowed Site in Tibet, the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa . New York Times, February 17, 2018.

29.653055 91.131392Coordinates: 29 ° 39 ′ 11 " N , 91 ° 7 ′ 53" E

[1] Also called Jokhang Temple or Jokhang Monastery; with Heinrich Harrer in his book Seven Years in Tibet and with Erich Schäfer in Tibet and Central Asia also "Cathedral". The Chinese name, Dàzhāo Sì大昭寺, suggests a close connection with the Ramoqê temple (ra mo che dgon pa) , which is called Xiǎozhāo Sì小昭寺in Chinese .

[saming-2] Guojia cèhuìjú diming yánjiūsuǒ国家测绘局地名研究所, Xizang diming西藏地名/ bod ljongs sa ming བོད་ ལྗོངས་ ས་ མིང (Tibetan place names) , Beijing, Zhōngguó Zàngxué chūbǎnshè中国藏学出版社1995, ISBN 7-80057- 284-6 , p. 89.

[3] Friedemann Berger : Faces of Tibet . 2nd Edition. Foreign Language Literature Publishing House, Beijing 2003, ISBN 7-119-01343-2 , p. 87.

[4] Tibetan sanctuary destroyed by fire . Spiegel Online, February 18, 2018. Chris Buckley: Fire Strikes Hallowed Site in Tibet, the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa . New York Times, February 17, 2018.