Barkhor Street is historically an active place as in the ancient time people get there for divine water from the Milky Pool (Othang Tso) which was replaced by the holy temple in the 7th century. Locals believed that the divine water used to cure many small diseases in the olden society of Lhasa. Later the religious king Songtsen Gampo erected the holy temple on that divine pool called Tsukla Khang.
It is the circumambulation around the Jokhang temple and is known as one of the most devotional circuits in Tibet. Due to huge numbers of pilgrims all year around from different regions, people start to sell things to tourists and Tibetans from other regions as well. In the early days, apart from its spiritual value, it is also a local market where exchanges between farmers and nomads took place. These days, lines of stalls and shops selling local artifacts and costumes mainly for tourists.
But the narrow street is one of the best ways to experience local spiritual practices as you can walk shoulder to shoulder with devoted Tibetan grannies and monks. This bustling street should be on the list of the top and worthwhile for every outsider to experience real Tibetan life, the street is such an active place that every shopkeeper loves to play their own interesting songs in a huge volume and many locals do circulation around the holy temple by murmuring different mantras with prayer wheels in their hand.
Current days, the street is especially crowded on Wednesday and Friday by local people who come there for offering incense in the incense burners around the holy temple and especially Tibetans from different areas visit there at the time of winter as most of the people don’t have any work during winter time as a farmer or nomadic. Some tourists choose the winter season to travel to Tibet to see the extraordinary Tibetan pilgrims and their lives, also interact with locals and mingle in the lines of pilgrims by breathing in the heady fragrance of incense, which is rarely experienced the rest of the year.
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