Jowo (statue)

The Two Jowo Statues are the Jowo Mikyo Dorje of Buddha Akshobhya, and the Jowo Shakyamuni Rinpoche (Tibetan: ཇོ་བོ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ།, Wylie: jo bo rin po che) of Shakyamuni Buddha. The Jowo Mikyo Dorje was made in Nepal and brought to Tibet c.622 by the Nepali princess Bhrikuti, who is credited with the spread of Buddhism to Tibet.^[1] The Jowo Mikyo Dorje was placed in the Jokhang which was purpose built in c.640 for the statue.^[2]

The Jowo Shakyamuni Rinpoche was brought to Tibet later by the Tang China princess Wencheng, and is a large 7th century statue of Gautama Buddha for which the Ramoche was built.^[3] The Jowo Shakyamuni Rinpoche was made in Tang China.

Both Jowo statues influenced the tradition of Tibetan art and are the most sacred statues in Tibet. The locations of the statues were switched, and the Jowo Shakyamuni is housed in the Jokhang chapel of the Rasa Trulnang Tsuklakhang Temple, and the Jowo Mikyo Dorje is in the Ramoche, both in Lhasa.