From the eleventh century to the present, the Jowo (jo bo) Śākyamuni statue has
served as a perduring index of Tibetan Buddhist ecclesiastical history.  Tibetan writers employed the
Jowo as a discursive site where religio-political paradigms were negotiated and transformed through
accounts of ritual observance and visions received.  In 1409, Tsongkhapa Lozang Drakpa  (1357-1419)
crowned the Jowo, changing his doctrinal and iconographic representations.  I connect the controversy
surrounding Tsongkhapa's decision to re/crown the Jowo in 1409 to the significance placed on
authenticity, firstness, and ritual efficacy in Tibetan cosmology.  I follow the history of the Jowo's
crown into the present, including the voices of those Tibetans who blame the 1951 Chinese invasion of
Tibet on repercussions of Tsongkhapa's controversial decision.  A multidisciplinary perspective,
combining texts, photographs, and ethnographic interviews in Tibet, Nepāl, and India, explicates the
controversial implications of the Jowo's appearance, and serves as a model for the study of Tibetan
lived religion.