Potala Palace

The Potala Palace is located in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region.

 

In 1994, the Potala Palace was declared the United Nations World Cultural Heritage site. The Potala Palace with a long history of over 1300 years was built by Songtsan Gambo, ruler of the Tubo Kingdom in the seventh century. It was built for Wen Chen Konjo (Princess Wencheng) of the Tang Dynasty, whom Songtsan Gambo was soon to marry because of political reasons. Repeated repairs and expansions until 1645 finally brought the palace to its present scale. Over the past three centuries, the palace gradually became a place where the Dalai Lamas live and work and a place for keeping the remains of successive Dalai Lama. The Potala Palace has always been the political center of Tibet since the fifth Dalai Lama (1645-1693).

 

The Potala Palace is the most valuable storehouse in Tibet. It is a huge treasure house for materials and articles of Tibetan history, religion, culture and arts. The Palace is widely known for the precious sculptures, murals, scripture, Buddha figures, murals, antiques, and religious jewelry. The magnificent Potala Palace is made of wood and stone. The overhanging leaves, the upturned roof corners, and the gilded brass tiles and gilded pillars inscribed with Buddhist scriptures, bottles, and makara fish as well as the gold-winged birds. The stone-and-wood-structured Potala Palace consists of over 1000 rooms, seminary, chanting hall, temples, various chambers for worshipping Buddha and chambers housing the stupas of several Dalai Lamas, which are covered with gold 1eaf and studded with jewels. Attractions mainly comprised by the White Palace (administerial building) and the Red Palace (religious building). The White Palace, comprising halls, temples and courtyards, serves as the living quarters of the Dalai Lama. The Red Palace is renowned for its religious status, gorgeous stupas and precious culture relics. The dominant buildings of the Red Palace are the stupa-tombs halls of Dalai Lamas and kinds of halls for worshiping Buddha. Records say that Stupa Tomb was made of sandalwood, wrapped in gold foil and decorated with thousands of diamonds, pearls, agates and others gems.