Muru Nyingba is a working Nyingma monastery in the network of alleys between the Jokhang and the Barkhor. It is easy to walk past — the entrance is a doorway in a wall — but inside is a quiet courtyard, an active printing house turning out hand-printed prayer texts on long wooden blocks, and a chapel with some of the oldest surviving murals in the old town.
For the printing house alone the stop is worth fifteen minutes. Monks ink the woodblocks, lay paper, rub the print, and stack the long folios to dry, working at a pace that has not changed in centuries. They will sell you a sheet for a few yuan as a souvenir.