Jokhang and early Lhasa religious and diplomatic contexts
Jokhang (Jo khang)
A temple, its changing fabric, and a nearby treaty inscription reveal different forms of royal, religious, and diplomatic evidence. Lhasa was connected to artisans and institutions beyond its valley.
Highland landscapes, communities, and changing institutions
Plateau, valley, and connected regional landscapes
Lhasa's valley connected diplomatic and artistic networks. The temple point is not a territorial or religious boundary.
Political organization and community scale
Royal patronage, religious institutions, artisans, and later regional rulers shaped the site. Their roles changed rather than forming an unbroken modern state.
Later transformation, living heritage, and modern reception
The shrine remains living religious heritage. Its seventh-century traditions, medieval expansions, and later conservation must be kept chronologically distinct.
Accounts differ over founders and participants.
The academic edition separates composition from erection.
A religious foundation date does not date every surviving wall.
A concise, sourced timeline
These milestones are orientation points, not a complete history.
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Medieval extension
The institutional history attributes the front extension to Pakmodrupa Drakpa Gyeltsen.
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Heritage ensemble extended
Jokhang joined the existing World Heritage property; the ensemble includes monuments from very different dates.
Households, labor, language, belief, and material evidence
Languages named in this profile
- Old Tibetan and Chinese in the treaty inscription
- Other resident languages not comprehensively recorded
Language family: Epigraphic languages describe particular documents, not every resident
Sacred origin traditions are attributed rather than treated as excavation results.
The treaty pillar preserves an institutional diplomatic voice, not a neutral population survey.
DNA Genics prepared this AI-assisted educational synthesis from the attributed sources. It was not authored or endorsed by those researchers or institutions. Living communities and religious custodians retain their own identities and stewardship; source corrections can be raised through the site's contact channel.
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Sources used for this page
Prefer accountable excavation teams, heritage authorities, academic inscription editions, institutional collections, and community-linked conservation projects. Registered sources are HTTPS and exclude Wikipedia. Royal, religious, colonial, and modern national narratives require attribution.
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C1
Archaeology of the Tibetan Plateau
Anke Hein, Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, Springer · Academic archaeological synthesis · 2018
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C2
Middle and Late Pleistocene Denisovan subsistence at Baishiya Karst Cave
Xia et al., Nature · Primary archaeological and proteomic study · 2024
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C3
New dating indicates intermittent human occupation of the Nwya Devu Paleolithic site on the high-altitude central Tibetan Plateau during the past 45,000 years
Ge et al., Science China Earth Sciences · Primary dating study · 2024
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C4
Comment on Permanent human occupation of the central Tibetan Plateau in the early Holocene
Zhang et al., Science · Published technical challenge to permanent-occupation interpretation · 2017
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C5
Foraging and farming: archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological evidence for Neolithic exchange on the Tibetan Plateau
Ren et al., Antiquity · Primary plant and animal remains study · 2020
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C6
Old Tibetan Documents Online
Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies · Academic manuscript and inscription editions · Texts of the seventh-twelfth centuries; current critical corpus
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C7
Early West Tibetan Buddhist Monuments
Austrian Academy of Sciences · Textual and architectural research project · Archived research project
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C8
Text, Art and Performance in Bon Ritual
University of Vienna, CIRDIS · Community-linked ritual and art research · 2012-2016 project
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C9
Preserving earthen architecture: Lessons learned from two case studies
Fuchs, Milchin and Krist, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports · Primary conservation research · 2024
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C10
The Sinja Valley Excavation in 2000 A.D.
Evans and Gibson with Acharya, Harward and Kunwar, Ancient Nepal 153; University of Cambridge archive · Primary Nepalese-Cambridge excavation report · 2003
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S1
Jokhang
The Treasury of Lives · Historical institution reference · Current sourced institutional entry
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S2
Historic Ensemble of the Potala Palace, Lhasa
UNESCO World Heritage Centre · Heritage record; Jokhang context, later Potala distinguished · 1994; extensions 2000 and 2001
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S3
The Sino-Tibetan treaty inscription of 821-822
Old Tibetan Documents Online, Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa · Contemporary diplomatic inscription in academic edition · Composed 821-822; erected 823; modern critical catalogue
Editorial review: October 19, 2026