Lhasa (Tibetan: ལྷ་ས་) is the capital of the Tibet autonomous region in China. It is located at 3650 meters (12 000 feet) above sea level on the northern slopes of the Himalayas.
Lhasa, which means "Land of the Gods" and is over 1,300 years old, sits in a valley right next to the Lhasa River (Kyi chu སྐྱིད་ཆུ་). In the eastern part of the city, near the Jokhang Temple and Barkhor neighborhood, Tibetan influence is still strong and evident and it is common to see traditionally dressed Tibetans engaged on a kora (a clockwise circumambulation or walk around the Jokhang Temple), often spinning prayer wheels. The western part of Lhasa is more ethnically Han Chinese in character. It is busy and modern and looks similar to many other Chinese cities. Much of the infrastructure, such as banks and government offices is to be found there.
wikitravel.org/en/Lhasa
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The Jokhang, (Tibetan: ཇོ་ཁང་; Wylie: Jo-khang; also called the Jokang, Jokhang Temple, Jokhang Monastery or Tsuklakang (gTsug lag khang), is located on Barkhor Square in Lhasa. It was built during the reign of king Songsten Gampo (605?-650 CE) to celebrate his marriage with Chinese Tang Dynasty princess Wencheng, who was a Buddhist.
During the Bon period of Tibet the temple was (and sometimes still is), called the 'Tsuklakang' (Tsulag Khang) — 'House of Religious Science' or 'House of Wisdom.' The term tsuklak refers to the 'sciences' such as geomancy, astrology, and divination which formed part of the pre-Buddhist shamanistic religion now referred to as Bon. It is more commonly known today as the Jokhang, which means the 'House of the Buddha'.
For most Tibetans it is the most sacred and important temple in Tibet. It is in some regards pan-sectarian, but is presently controlled by the Gelug school.
Along with the Potala Palace, it is probably the most popular tourist attraction in Lhasa. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Historic Ensemble of the Potala Palace," and a spiritual centre of Lhasa.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jokhang
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The history of Tibetan Buddhism has been researched through the analysis of numerous oral traditions and written records.
Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures from India were first translated into Tibetan under the reign of the Tibetan king Songtsän Gampo (618-649). The successors of Songtsän Gampo were less enthusiastic about the propagation of Buddhism, but in the 8th century King Trisong Detsen (755-797) established it as the official religion of the state. He invited Indian Buddhist scholars to his court. During his rule, according to Tibetan tradition, the famous tantric mystic Padmasambhāva arrived in Tibet, composed a number of important scriptures, and established the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism along with Śāntarakṣita.
Read more: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Tibetan_Buddhism
Tags: Tibet བོད བོད་ལྗོངས། 2017 ༢༠༡༧་ ©Jan Reurink Tibetan Plateau བོད་མཐོ་སྒང་bötogang Tibet Autonomous Region T.A.R. Ü-Tsang Lhasa Jokhang Lhaden Tsuglakhang Jowokhang ཇོ་ཁང་ Face གདོང་པ་ dong pa གདོང༌ dong གདོང་ཁ dongkha portrait portraiture face color གདོང་མདོག dongdok portrayal picture photograph likeness buddhism སངས་རྒྱས་ཆོས་ལུགས། sangs rgyas chos lugs buddhist སངས་རྒྱས་ཆོས་ལུགས་པ buddhist scriptures or pecha དཔེ་ཆ། ཆོས་དཔེ། Prayer wheel འཁོར་ལོ་ 'khor lo prayer wheel མ་ནི་ཆོས་འཁོར་ ma ni chos 'khor
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The Jokhang also known as the, Jokang, Jokhang Temple, Jokhang Monastery and Zuglagkang is a Buddhist temple in Barkhor Square in Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet. Tibetans, in general, consider this temple as the most sacred and important temple in Tibet.
The temple is currently maintained by the Gelug school, but they accept worshipers from all sects of Buddhism. The temple's architectural style is a mixture of Indian vihara design, Tibetan and Nepalese design. Within the Tibetan tradition a list of eleven different forms of the victory banner is given to represent eleven specific methods for overcoming "defilements".
Many variations of the dhvaja's design can be seen on the roofs of Tibetan monasteries to symbolyze the Buddha's victory over four maras. In its most traditional form the victory banner is fashioned as a cylindrical ensign mounted upon a long wooden axel-pole.
The top of the banner takes the form of a small white "parasol" , which is surrounded by a central "wish granting gem". This domed parasol is rimmed by an ornate golden crest-bar or moon-crest with makara-trailed ends, from which hangs a billowing yellow or "white silk scarf'"
In 821, Ralpachen and Tang Emperor Mu Zong concluded a treaty, the text of which was inscribed on three stone pillars. One pillar was erected in the Chinese capital of Xi’an, one on the border between China and Tibet, and one (the only remaining pillar) in Lhasa known as the Doring Pillar. The treaty established that the “whole region to the east” was “Great China” and the “whole region to the west” was “Great Tibet.” The treaty declared that “Tibetans shall be happy in Tibet and Chinese shall be happy in China…”
www.alamy.com/stock-photo-tang-tibetan-peace-treaty-pilla...
Tags: Tibet བོད བོད་ལྗོངས། 2017 ༢༠༡༧་ ©Jan Reurink Tibetan Plateau བོད་མཐོ་སྒང་bötogang Tibet Autonomous Region T.A.R. Ü-Tsang Lhasa Jokhang Lhaden Tsuglakhang Jowokhang ཇོ་ཁང་ full body prostration Pilgrim གནས་བསྐོར་བ་ nekorwa / སྐོར་མི kormi pilgrimage གནས་བསྐོར nekor on pilgrimage གནས་སྐོར་པ nekorpa great sacred place གནས་ཆེན nechen Face གདོང་པ་ dong pa གདོང༌ dong གདོང་ཁ dongkha portrait portraiture face color གདོང་མདོག dongdok portrayal picture photograph likeness
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In front of the Jokhang temple, this family did a full body prostration.
This is very hard to do,
The actual prostration is performed by dropping the body forward and stretching it full length on the floor, the arms outstretched in front.... Again, with hands in the lotus bud mudra, bend your arms back and touch your hands to the top of your head (forehead touching the ground), a gesture that acknowledges the blessing flowing from Guru Rinpoche. Then stretch your arms out once more and push yourself up.... Bring your hands into the lotus bud mudra for the third time and touch your heart in a gesture of reverence. Then, walk forward in body length, with a smooth motion, bring your hands to your crown and perform the next prostration...........
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostration_(Buddhism)
Tags: Tibet བོད བོད་ལྗོངས། 2017 ༢༠༡༧་ ©Jan Reurink Tibetan Plateau བོད་མཐོ་སྒང་bötogang Tibet Autonomous Region T.A.R. Ü-Tsang Lhasa Jokhang Lhaden Tsuglakhang Jowokhang ཇོ་ཁང་ full body prostration Pilgrim གནས་བསྐོར་བ་ nekorwa / སྐོར་མི kormi pilgrimage གནས་བསྐོར nekor on pilgrimage གནས་སྐོར་པ nekorpa great sacred place གནས་ཆེན nechen Face གདོང་པ་ dong pa གདོང༌ dong གདོང་ཁ dongkha portrait portraiture face color གདོང་མདོག dongdok portrayal picture photograph likeness
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