The Barkhor, both a place for walking meditation and shopping

The Pargor Subdistrict, traditionally known as the Barkhor (; ), is an area of narrow streets and a public square located around Jokhang Temple in

Lhasa Lhasa (; Lhasa dialect: ; bo, text=ལྷ་ས, translation=Place of Gods) is the urban center of the prefecture-level Lhasa City and the administrative capital of Tibet Autonomous Region in Southwest China. The inner urban area of Lhas ...

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa, Taman ...

, China. The Barkhor is a popular devotional circumambulation for pilgrims and locals. The walk is about a kilometre long and encircles the entire Jokhang Temple, the former seat of the State Oracle in Lhasa called the

Muru Nyingba Monastery Muru Ningba or Meru Nyingba (rMe ru snying pa) (Tibetan: རྨེ་རུ་སྙིང་པ་) is a small Buddhist monastery located between the larger monasteries of Jokhang and Barkhor in the city of Lhasa, Tibet, China. It was the Lhasa s ...

, and a number of former nobles' houses including Tromzikhang and Jamkhang. There are four large incense burners (''sangkangs'') in the four cardinal directions, with incense burning constantly, to please the gods protecting the Jokhang. The Tromzikhang market is busy in the Barkhor, and the area is a major tourist attraction. Because the Jokhang Temple has been a symbolic centre of Tibetan protests since 1987, the Barkhor has also seen many demonstrations. When the

14th Dalai Lama The 14th Dalai Lama (spiritual name Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, known as Tenzin Gyatso (Tibetan: བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་, Wylie: ''bsTan-'dzin rgya-mtsho''); né Lhamo Thondup), known as ...

won the

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolog ...

in 1989, many of his supporters threw

tsampa Tsampa or Tsamba (; ) is a Tibetan and Himalayan staple foodstuff, particularly prominent in the central part of the region. It is glutinous meal made from roasted flour, usually barley flour and sometimes also wheat flour. It is usually mi ...

around the Barkhor to celebrate. After the

central government A central government is the government that is a controlling power over a unitary state. Another distinct but sovereign political entity is a federal government, which may have distinct powers at various levels of government, authorized or dele ...

denounced the prize, residents who continued such demonstrations were arrested. The square was briefly closed by

riot police Riot police are police who are organized, deployed, trained or equipped to confront crowds, protests or riots. Riot police may be regular police who act in the role of riot police in particular situations or they may be separate units organize ...

during the 2008 Lhasa protests.

References

Chengguan District, Lhasa Populated places in Lhasa History of Lhasa Subdistricts of the People's Republic of China Township-level divisions of Tibet {{tibet-stub