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Tibetans

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Abiding Faith
Photograph by Steve McCurry

Pilgrims stand patiently in line for hours to enter the heart of the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, Tibet’s capital. An inner shrine contains the country’s most sacred statue, called the Jowo Rinpoche—a seated Buddha installed when Buddhism was adopted by Tibetan royalty in the seventh century. An ever present part of the lives of modern Tibetans, this religion remains the most important defining element of their culture.