Country Reviews: Visit the many temples in Tibet!

If you had never gone to Tibet, it is a good time to plan for one right now. Located in China, there are a large assortments of temples and monasteries in Tibet, with many of them containing huge amounts of heritage and cultural value. Country Reviews aims to promote some of the more famous temples in Tibet by writing this article.

1. Jokhang

The Jokhang Temple, or Qokang Monastery is a temple located in Lhasa, Tibet. Many in Tibet felt that it is the most important and sacred temple in all of Tibet due to to its long history. It was built by the founder of the Tibetan Empire, Songtsan Gampo back in around the 640s. It has since been preserved till today where many tourists flock to see the beauteous architecture of the famous temple.

The Jokhang temple houses many of the world's famous Buddhist artefacts and statutes, mostly brought in from China and Nepal with the temple itself inspired from Indian, Chinese and Nepalese design. Jokhang Temple has since became a UNESCO World Heritage Site with it being one of the most popular places to visit in Tibet.

If you are visiting Jokhang, be sure to purchase some of the memorabilia sold outside of the temple as they are not sold anywhere outside of Tibet and have a chat with the monks in the inside of the temple to understand more about their ways of life.

2. Sera Monastery

The Sera Monastery was founded in the early 15th Century and is one of the most important university monasteries in Tibet today. It is located around the Wangbur Mountain, north of Lhasa and houses more than 3,000 monks.

The Sera Monastery also hosts the "Monk Debates" which talks about the teachings of Buddhism and it has grown to become a place for monks to learn more about the ways of Buddhism with affiliations to many hermitages in Tibet. There is a fixed schedule and it shouldn't be hard for a tourist to watch on as the monks debate about Buddhism.If you are a devotee of the Buddhist teachings, the Sera Monastery also hosts the Sho Dun Festival in August where many flock to the Monastery to worship Buddha.

3. Ramoche Temple

The last on our list would be the Ramoche Temple. When you think about all of the temples in Tibet, Ramoche might come to your mind as it is often famed as the most important temple in Tibet after the Jokhang. Even those the exterior of the temple might not look fancy, if you would just peek inside, you would be able to find that the architects have really placed in a lot of effort into designing the interior.

Even though the temple was destroyed numerous times throughout history, consistent restorations to it has brought it back to its former glory and today, the Jowo Mikyo Dorje inside the temple remains one of the most revered statute in all of Tibet. There are also large pillars shaped like flutes which carries some of the historic Tibetan items, like jewellery and Tibetan Charcters