The Potala Palace is a dzong fortress in the city of Lhasa, in Tibet. The palace is named after Mount Potalaka, the mythical abode of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. The 5th Dalai Lama started its construction in 1645 after one of his spiritual advisers, Konchog Chophel, pointed out that the site was ideal as a seat of government.
About Potala Palace in brief
The Potala Palace is a dzong fortress in the city of Lhasa, in Tibet. The palace is named after Mount Potalaka, the mythical abode of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. The 5th Dalai Lama started its construction in 1645 after one of his spiritual advisers, Konchog Chophel, pointed out that the site was ideal as a seat of government. It was the winter palace of the Dalai Lamas from 1649 to 1959, and has been a museum since then. It has been a World Heritage Site since 1994. Rapid extensions to the modernisation of the palace have been a concern for UNESCO, which expressed concern over the building’s modernisation. The Chinese government responded by enacting a new law to protect the palace’s unique atmosphere, which has been described as ‘unprecedented in the history of the Tibetan people’ The new law was passed by the Chinese parliament in December 2006.
The PotalA Palace was inscribed to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1994. It contains over 1,000 rooms, 10,000 shrines and about 200,000 statues, soar 117 metres on top of Marpo Ri, the \”Red Hill\”, rising more than 300 metres in total above the valley floor. It also escaped damage during the Cultural Revolution in 1966 through the personal intervention of Zhou Enlai, who was then the Premier of the People’s Republic of China. Tibetan activist Tsering Woeser claims the palace, housing precious objects, handicrafts, wall hangings, statues and ancient armour, was almost robbed. On the other hand, tibetologist Amy Heller writes that \”the invaluable library and artistic treasures accumulated over the centuries have been preserved and preserved in the palace.
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This page is based on the article Potala Palace published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 20, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
