Barkhor Travel Video Guide

Barkhor Travel Itinerary

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Traditionally pilgrims to Lhasa circled the city on two clockwise routes: an outer circuit called the Lingkhor, now vanished under two-lane highways and rebuilding, and the shorter Barkhor circuit through the alleyways a short distance from the Jokhang walls. This has survived, a maze of picturesque streets a world away from the rest of Lhasa, now lined with the stalls of an outdoor market selling all manner of goods including saddles and stirrups, Chinese army gear, thangkas, jewellery, blankets, cassette tapes, carpets, tin trunks and pictures of lamas to mention a fraction only. The pilgrims, too, are an amazing sight, with statuesque Khampa men with their traditional knives and red-braided hair, decorated with huge chunks of turquoise; Amdo women dripping jewels with their hair in 108 plaits; and old ladies spinning their tiny prayer wheels and intoning mantras. The Barkhor circuit is actually at its most interesting in the evening when the stalls clear their tourist junk and vendors start selling what the locals actually want - straw hats, kung fu T-shirts and abject plastic. The clockwise-strolling masses come here to browse and socialize.

The whole Barkhor area is worth exploring - with huge wooden doors set in long white walls leading into hidden courtyards - but try not to miss Tromzikhang market to the north of the Jokhang; take the main alleyway into the Barkhor that leads off Beijing Dong Lu just east of Ramoche Lu and it's just down on your left. The two-storey modern building is a bit soulless, but nowhere else in the world can you see (or smell) so much yak butter in one place.

One other sight to seek out here is the Ani Tsangkung Nunnery (Y6) to the southeast of the Jokhang - either head west from the main Lhasa mosque, a couple of hundred metres west of Lingkuo Dong Lu or right and then right again into the Barkhor from the next alleyway west of the Khadag Hotel. You'll probably need to ask the way (see "Language"). With over a hundred nuns in residence, several of whom

speak good English, there is a lively but devout atmosphere, especially around prayer time at 11am. The main chapel is dominated by a fabulous Chenresi in a glass case. From the back of the chapel, facing the main door, you can head right, round the outside, to visit the long, narrow room containing King Songtsen Gampo's meditation chamber in a pit at the end. Supposedly his meditation here altered the course of the Kyichu River when it looked likely to flood the construction of the Jokhang.

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