The Barkhor circuit doubles as Lhasa's main bazaar. Stalls and small shops line the entire kora, selling religious goods to pilgrims (juniper bundles, prayer wheels, ghau charm boxes, butter lamps), turquoise and coral jewellery, knives, prayer flags by the metre, and a great deal of low-quality souvenir tat.
The good stuff is mixed in with the cheap. Genuine old turquoise, antique jewellery, Tibetan rugs and silver work are all available, but you need to know what you are looking at. Bargain hard — opening prices for foreigners are routinely four to five times the realistic rate. The best buys are simple, useful things: prayer flags, a brass butter lamp, a length of yak-wool cloth, hand-printed prayer-book pages from the Muru Nyingba printing house.