The Dazhao Temple is the early Buddhist Temple of the Tubo Dynasty. According to historical documents, in year of 647, Tubo Songtsan Gambo gave order to build up a Buddhist hall in the royal court to collect josses and classical scriptures so as to marry in Princess Wencheng of the Tang Dynasty and Princess Bhrikuti of the Nepal Kingdom. The land selected, the architecture designed by Princess Wencheng, and the construction supervised by Princess Bhrikuti, the temple was originally named the White Hair Goddess Palace, and renamed as the Dazhao Temple in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), and formed the present scale through the expansions and repairs during the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties (1271-911). The temple, covering an area of over 25,000 square meters, includes buildings like the Hall of Sakyamuni, the Hall for Worshiping Buddha and bKa'-gshags governmental agencies.

The Hall of Sakyamuni is the most important in the temple. The three-storeyed hall enshrines a statue of Sakyamuni, which Tang Dynasty Princess Wencheng brought to Lhasa. The dooryard of the Hall of Sakyamuni is not big in area. In the east of the dooryard there is a mandala surrounded by 24 giant columns, which served as a meeting place in front of the Hall for Worshiping Buddha. There are 2-storeyed corridors in east, south and north outside. On the west side of the Hall of Sakyamuni there is a courtyard walled by a 2-storeyed building with a corridor as its outskirt.

The whole temple adopted the Han nationality architectural style of the Tang Dynasty in several aspects such as roof beams, sunk panels, and wooden square blocks inserted between the top of a column and a crossbeam, etc, while the eaves of interior corridor are decorated with rows of divine animals and wooden sphinx carvings, etc, assuming the flavor of architectures in the Western Regions. Tibetan frescoes were painted all around on the corridor and the halls' walls, describing Princess Wencheng Enter Tibet and other historical facts. The total length of these frescoes is about 1,000 meters, and of high historical and artistic value.

In front of the Dazhao Temple gate, there are a stele engraved with historical record of the Alliance between the Tang Dynasty and the Tubo Kingdom in the year of 823, and the Princess Willow Tree. Legend has it that when Tang Dynasty Princess Wencheng was married in Tubo, she planted this willow tree. All this has become historic testimony for the unity between Chinese Han and Tibet nationality, and the Tang Dynasty - Tubo Kingdom Alliance Stele is the important historic substantial material for the research into the Han-Tibet exchange in the Tang Dynasty.

The architecture of the Dazhao Temple is splendid, making the old Lhasa City assume a strong religious atmosphere.