The Jokhang temple, a massive building consisting of three floors and an open roof all filled with chapels and chambers, has undergone extensive reconstructions and additions since the 7th century, particularly during the 17th century reign of the fifth Dalai Lama. While parts of the existing temple structure date from earlier times, most of the murals are from the 18th and 19th centuries and few statues (with the notable exception of the Joyo Sakyamuni) are older than the 1980's. The temple was sacked several times during Mongol incursions but its worst treatment has been at the hands of the Chinese since their occupation of Tibet in 1959. The Jokhang is the most celebrated temple in Tibet. Because the temple is not controlled by a particular sect of Tibetan Buddhism it attracts adherents of all the sects as well as followers of Bon-Po, Tibet's indigenous religion. Three pilgrimage circuits exist in Lhasa, each directing pilgrims to the Jowo Sakyamuni statue: the Lingkhor, which encircles the city’s sacred district; the Barkhor, which encloses the Jokhang temple; and the Nangkhor, a ritual corridor inside the Jokhang. Every day throughout the year hundreds of pilgrims circumambulate each of these three circuits. Some pilgrims will cover the entire distance by prostrating every few feet, and others will walk slowly, chanting sacred mantras and spinning hand-held prayer wheels. For more than a thousand years millions of pilgrims have trod these sacred paths with devotion in their hearts; this cumulative focusing of intention and love has charged the Jokhang with an enormously powerful field of sanctity.  Archaeological excavations have revealed Neolithic activity in the vicinity of Lhasa yet it is probable that the actual founding of the city occurred in the 7th century AD. Songtsen Gampo (traditionally the 33rd king of Tibet, though there are no records to substantiate the entire lineage) lived from 617 to 649 AD and is credited with both the founding of Lhasa and the effective introduction of Buddhism into Tibet. While it is possible that Lhasa had some pre-Buddhist sacred importance, legends and records give little evidence of this matter.

The events leading to Lhasa's emergence as the sacred city of Tibetan Buddhism begins are associated with the marriages of King Songtsen Gampo to his Nepalese and Chinese wives. In 632 (or 634) Songsten Gampo married his first wife, Princess Tritsun (the sister of the Nepalese King Narendradeva). In 641, Gampo married his second wife, Princess Wencheng from China, who brought with her two statues of the Buddha. These statues were called the Akshobya Vajra, depicting the Buddha at the age of eight, and the Jowo Sakyamuni, depicting Buddha at the age of twelve. After a long journey on a wooden cart, the Jowo Sakyamuni statue arrived in Lhasa and the cart became stuck in the sand. Princess Wencheng divined that beneath the cart was the subterranean ‘Paradise of the Water Divinities’ and so constructed the Ramoche temple to house the Jowo Sakyamuni statue at that specific location.