August 21, 2007
Potala Palace was the winter home of the Dalai Lamas from 1649 to 1959 and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Today it is a museum visited by thousands of visitors every year.
It was constructed on a steep hill within the city of Lhasa. There are 13 floors which contain more than a thousand rooms. We slowly walked up the hill and climbed many steps and steep ramps to get to the entrance. This was especially difficult in the thin air of the high altitude of the city.
The view from the top looking across Lhasa and the mountains in the distance was spectacular.
Our guide joined the noisy crowd at the ticket window to buy tickets for us.
There was a lot of pushing, shoving, and yelling, and finally a Chinese police officer appeared and settled things down. Our guide said the ruckus was typical of arrogant Chinese tourists.
Potala Palace had been damaged during the Tibetan uprising against the Chinese in 1959 and local people were concerned about the 10,000 shrines and 200,000 statues contained in the palace.
Unfortunately, photography was not allowed inside the palace. The interior chambers were dimly lit but I saw many rooms filled with Buddhist statues and shrines to previous Dalai Lamas. There was active reconstruction and renovation work outside:
View of Lhasa and the mountains from the top:
Walking back down steep ramps to leave the palace:
Prayer flags line the route back down the mountain.
Prayer wheels were located in a square near the bottom of the palace. Sacred words, are written on the outside of each wheel. A “life tree” made of wood or metal is in the center with many thousands of prayers wrapped around the center “tree.”
Spinning the wheel has the effect of orally reciting the prayers many times.
Later, we went to a carpet factory. The toddler in the photo below accompanied his mother to work.
A Stupa (or Chorten in Tibetan) is an important religious monument which represents the Buddha’s presence. The top is crowned with a crescent moon and the sun.
