Potala Palace

Today is the first day of sightseeing in Lhasa.

Potala Palace was the residence of the Dalai Lama until he fled to India during the 1959 Chinese invasion. It is now a museum and world heritage sight.

It was constructed in 17th Century, the building has copper poured into the foundaiton to help make it earthquake proof. It contains 13 stories, 1000 rooms, 10,000 shrines and 200,000 statues. Not sure how many stories we walked but it was a lot.

The Potala Palace, winter palace of the Dalai Lama since the 7th century, symbolizes Tibetan Buddhism and its central role in the traditional administration of Tibet. The complex, comprising the White and Red Palaces with their ancillary buildings, is built on Red Mountain in the centre of Lhasa Valley, at an altitude of 3,700m. Also founded in the 7th century.

I could not take pictures from inside but I found some on google but I can tell you it was beautiful, we did not go into all the rooms but we did see heaps of shines and statues. In some ways the palace is more specular than Ankor Wat. It is hard to describe just how immense and incredible inside the Palace really is just a shame our tour guide does not explain things very well for us to get a better understanding of what we actually visited.

I think purchasing a book when back in Nepal on the Palace is the way to go.Read more