First built in the seventh century, the temple has undergone numerous renovations and expansions to become the complex it is today.

In 821, the central government of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and the Tubo regime, which ruled the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau from the seventh to the ninth centuries, formed an alliance. Two years later, that alliance was recorded on a stele in both Chinese and Tibetan script that was erected outside the Jokhang Temple. The Tang-Tubo Alliance Monument, as it is known, chronicles the history of that alliance between the Han and Tibetan ethnic groups.

A circumambulation path for pilgrims formed around the Jokhang Temple and gradually expanded into prosperous Barkhor Bazaar. Throughout the ages, the extended area has been a bustling center of commerce, and is home to multiple cultural, artistic and religious venues, as well as residential compounds.

The area centered on Barkhor Bazaar and its neighboring alleys and courtyards is known as the Old City of Barkhor.

Meanwhile, Barkhor Bazaar has been marked by the stamp of joint development among the different ethnic groups of Xizang.