One of the best places to view modern day Lhasa and its diversity of culture is in the bustling Barkhor, a circular street in the center of the old city. Here, the Barkhor Market has all manner of goods from turquoise jewelry to meditation beads, colorful traditional Tibetan clothes and yak wool sweaters. Here you can watch groups of monks draped in their maroon and saffron robes mingling with Tibetans from remote areas wearing long boots, sporting daggers and large turquoise necklaces.

Long streams of pious Tibetan pilgrims walk clockwise in Barkhor chanting prayers with their meditation beads, spinning their prayer wheels or performing full prostrations as they circle the Jokhang Temple, one of Tibet's holiest temples. These devout pilgrims wear yak leather gloves and aprons to protect their hands as they slide over the rocky ground, their reverent prostrations atoning for bad deeds performed in the past. Prostrating pilgrims journey from all over Tibet to worship here.