Visiting Potala palace

It is without doubt one of the most impressive buildings in the world: The Dalai Lama's palace in Lhasa. Being Tibet's palace and administrative building since the 17th century it's now empty since the Dalai Lama fled to India in the 1950s. It's Lhasa's main tourist attraction. Though the number of tickets is limited to 3000 a day it's packed with people. You can only visit a small part of the over 1000 rooms and you have only 50 minutes for the visit. (And it's super expensive, btw.)

Still it is very impressive, especially as the tourist crowds are mixing with the pilgrims worshipping the different holy items. Not to forget: The enormous political symbol that lies in the building, being the home of the Dalai Lama. Police and military is everywhere. And fire extinguishers. They were put up everywhere since Buddhist monks burnt themselves a couple of years ago protesting against the Chinese occupation.

If you are wondering why there are no pictures from inside: it's usually not allowed to take pictures inside Buddhist places.Read more