The Jokhang temple is the spiritual center of the Tibet,its holy place, the dectination, over time, of millions of Tibetean pilgrims. This temple begun to built in seventh century AD. It Was one of the two temples built by the King Songtsen Gampo to house the statue of Buddha that his two foreign wives brought to Tibet from China and Nepal.Legend says that Songtsen Gampo threw his ring into air promising to build temple wherever it landed.The ring felt in to a lake and struck a rock where a white stupa miraculously appeared an auspicious sign.Workmen filled the lake with stones, and the Jokhang was built over it by craftsmen from Tibet,China,Nepal,Mongolaia and Kashmir.Even today a pool exist under the jokhang main courtyard. Following removal of part of the Barkhor Bazar in 1985 to make way for a plaza,three monuments that stand infront of the Jokhang were enclosed in walls.Th epillar on the left is a treaty stone recording an alliance between the king of Tibet and the emperor of China in AD 823.On the right ,the more visible of the two tables was epidemic. The tablet was partly eaten away by people who thought the stone itself had curative powers.

The outer courtyard and porch of the temple are usually filled with pilgrims making full-length prostrations toward the holy sanctum. Its innermost shrine contains the oldest, most precious objects in Tibet-the original Statue of Sakyamuni, which princes Wen Cheng brought from Changan 1300 years ago.It was enlarged eight times between the seventh century and 1600,when the fifth Dalai Lama added its last embellishments. It consist of an elaborate porch leading to frescoed cloister around an open court yeard.