she divined that the landscape of Tibet was like a great
supine demoness, obstructing the introduction and
spread of the dharma. She advised the king, a new
Buddhist convert, and his Nepalese wife Bhrkuti to
erect the Jo khang directly over the demoness’s heart.
This project was later augmented with twelve temples
constructed at other physiognomic locations, where
they served as great geomantic nails to pin down and
subdue the forces inimical to Buddhism. The Jo khang
originally housed a statue of the buddha AKSOBHYA
belonging to Bhrkuti. After the king’s death, the Jo bo
was removed from its previous location in the nearby
Ra mo che Temple, founded by Wencheng herself, and
installed in the Jo khang’s inner sanctum.
Modern scholarship now questions the historicity
of many details of this episode, including Srong btsan
sgam po’s exclusive dedication to Buddhism and the
existence of his Nepalese queen. However, the narra-
tives of Tibet’s Buddhist conversion through the sub-
jugation of local deities continue to play a significant
role in the religious life of many Tibetans, affirming
the Jo khang’s key position in the sacred geography of
the Tibetan Buddhist world.
Since its founding, the Jo khang has been enlarged
and renovated on numerous occasions, although ar-
chitectural details from its original foundation are still
evident, especially in the carved wooden door frames
attributed to Newari craftsmen from Nepal. The tem-
ple suffered in the 1960s during the Chinese Cultural
Revolution, when part of the complex and much of its
original statuary were damaged or destroyed; restora-
tion took place in the early 1970s and again during the
early 1990s.
The temple lies at the heart of Lhasa’s principal rit-
ual ambulatory, called the bar skor(pronounced bark-
hor) or middle circuit, which skirts its outer walls and
surrounding structures. The Jo khang and bar skorto-
gether continue to form Lhasa’s primary public religious
space, where pilgrims and devotees daily walk, prostrate,
pray, and perform offerings in the temple’s many
chapels and around the circumambulation path. The
site is also a lively marketplace and social scene, where
individuals meander through street vendor’s stalls and
modern Chinese department stores. Since the late 1980s
the bar skorhas also become the principal Tibetan stage
for political protest and civil demonstration.
Bibliography
Aris, Michael. Bhutan: The Early History of a Himalayan King-
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Gyatso, Janet. “Down with the Demoness.” Tibet Journal12,
no. 4 (1987): 34–46. Reprinted in Feminine Ground: Essays
on Women and Tibet,ed. Janice Dean Willis. Ithaca, NY:
Snow Lion, 1989.
Larsen, Knud, and Sinding-Larsen, Amund. The Lhasa Atlas:
Traditional Tibetan Architecture and Townscape.Boston:
Shambhala, 2001.
Richardson, Hugh. “The Jo-Khang ‘Cathedral’ of Lhasa.” In
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Imaeda. Paris: Librairie d’Amérique et d’Orient, 1977.
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Tibetan History and Culture,ed. Michael Aris. London:
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Vitali, Roberto. “Lhasa Jokhang and Its Secret Chapel.” In Early
Temples of Central Tibet.London: Serindia, 1990.ANDREWQUINTMANJUEFAN (HUIHONG)Juefan Huihong (1071–1128) was a Buddhist monk
and poet active primarily during the tumultuous reign
of the Chinese emperor Song Huizong (r. 1101–1125).
Huihong promoted an approach to Buddhism he
called literary Chan (wenziChan) that incorporated
poetry, painting, and scholarship on religious and
secular books, with contemporary CHAN SCHOOL
practices. Several prominent literati including Zhang
Shangying (1043–1122) and Huang Tingjian
(1045–1105) befriended Huihong and advocated his
literary Chan, helping to ensure his lasting fame.Huihong became a monk after he lost his parents
at the age of fourteen and was ordained at nineteen.
During his early years he primarily studied YOGACARA
SCHOOLtexts. In 1092 Huihong became a pupil of
Zhenjing Kewen (1025–1102), a legendary Chan
teacher from the Huanglong collateral branch of the
Linji lineage. Between 1092 and 1105, Huihong inves-
tigated the sutras and Chan literature, and visited sa-
cred sites throughout southern China. In 1105
Huihong was jailed for the first of four incarcerations
because of his connections to a faction opposed to
Huizong’s anti-Buddhist policies. Huihong’s disfavor
at court earned him an exile to Hainan island in
1112–1113. During this time Huihong turned to writ-
ing and reading poetry for solace and compiled a trea-
tise on poetic criticism called the Lengzhai yehua
(Evening Discourses from a Cold Studio). In addition,
Huihong finished work on his somewhat unorthodox
discourse record, the Linjian lu(Anecdotes from theJUEFAN(HUIHONG)