The main image here is the fabulously ornate Jowo Mikyöba (Akshobhya) image, which represents Sakyamuni at the age of eight. The statue is in the inner Tsangkhang, protected by the four guardian kings and a curtain of chain mail, which pilgrims rub for good luck. The lower half of the statue was discovered in 1983 in a Lhasa rubbish tip and the head was discovered in Beǐjīng’s Forbidden City and brought back to Lhasa by the 10th Panchen Lama.
As you enter the temple, past pilgrims doing full-body prostrations and the first of two inner koras, you’ll see a protector chapel to the left, featuring masks and puppets on the ancient pillars and an encased image of the divination deity Dorje Yudronma covered in beads on a horse. The main chapel is full of fearsome protector deities in yabyum pose, as befitting a Tantric temple. The Ramoche was badly damaged by Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution, but the complex has since been restored with Swiss assistance.
