Potala Palace

The Potala Palace rises over the centre of Lhasa, in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, on the Marpo Ri, or Red Hill, at about 3,700 metres above sea level. The Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo is said to have built a palace on the hill in the 7th century, and the present complex was begun in 1645 under the Fifth Dalai Lama.

The White Palace, the living quarters and offices, was completed in 1648, and the Red Palace, which holds chapels and the tombs of past Dalai Lamas, was added between 1690 and 1694. The palace was the winter residence of the Dalai Lamas and the seat of the Tibetan government until the 14th Dalai Lama left for India in 1959. It is now a museum.

The building rises 13 storeys and about 117 metres from the hillside and stretches around 400 metres from east to west. Its sloping stone walls are several metres thick at the base. Inside are more than 1,000 rooms, with thousands of shrines and statues, murals and scriptures. The gilded tomb stupa of the Fifth Dalai Lama in the Red Palace is one of the largest and most richly decorated.

UNESCO listed the Potala Palace in 1994, and the listing was later extended to include the Jokhang Temple and the Norbulingka summer palace. The square in front of the palace and the kora, the pilgrim path around its base, are busy with pilgrims spinning prayer wheels.

Visits are by timed, named ticket, and time inside is limited, with daily visitor numbers capped in the high season. Foreign visitors need a Tibet Travel Permit and must travel with a licensed guide. The climb up the steps is steep at high altitude, so allow time to acclimatise in Lhasa first.

How large is the complex? The palace measures about 400 metres east to west and 350 metres north to south, and its walls average 3 metres thick. It holds more than 1,000 rooms, about 10,000 shrines and around 200,000 statues. The outer shell took about three years to build after 1645, while the interiors and furnishings took some 45 years. The palace takes its name from Mount Potalaka, the mythical home of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara.

The Dalai Lamas lived here from 1649 until 1959. The building was damaged during the Tibetan uprising of 1959, and Chinese premier Zhou Enlai is credited with protecting it during the Cultural Revolution. To limit wear on the old floors, a daily quota of 1,600 visitors was set in 2003 and later raised to 2,300, and access to the roof was stopped after restoration work ended in 2006.

Book through your Tibet tour operator well ahead in summer, as tickets carry your passport name and a fixed entry time.