Seven Days in Tibet - Potala Palace

Behold, the Potala Palace! This palace was the main residence of the Dalai Llama himself (until he was exiled in 1959 by the CCP government) and was built in the center of Lhasa almost 400 years ago. It sits right on a mountain that is visible from almost anywhere you go in the city.



For years this palace was both the religious and political center of Tibet. Thousands of people in Lhasa come to make a pilgrimage around its walls everyday.

Our Tibetan guide and his sidekick. These guys not only 'rocked house,' they gave us tours of the Dalai Llama's house!


A view of downtwon Lhasa from the top of the palace steps.

Us walking up the stairway mountain to the door of the palace. They only allow a few thousand people in everyday, so we had to wait until our wave of people was accepted into the grounds.


This is what the rest of Lhasa looks like when you get to the top of the palace steps.

This section of the palace is where you enter into the main halls. There are 1,000 different rooms in the palace, and the Dalai Llama used only a few regularly. Because the Dalai Llama belongs to the 'Yellow sect' of Buddhism, many of the things relating to him are yellow. At the top of this picture you can see a yellow window. That is the window he would come out to address the people, and see the cool stuff in the courtyard.


These guys were laughing at their buddy who was posing with people that wanted to take pictures of real Tibetan looking men. They just couldn't get enough of how their friend soaked up the attention. I didn't want them to feel left out, so I snapped a photo of them.

Here is our crew after we finished our 90 minute tour. We were officially stoked about the cool ideas of Tibetan Buddhism by the end of the 90 minutes, and couldn't wait for another dose.

This is the main courtyard of the Potala Palace. You can see the brown yak cloth that is draped all around. You can see two of the 'auspicious symbols' in Tibetan Buddhism- the eternal knot, and the dharma wheel (the symbol of political power for the Dalai Llama).

The door of the Potala Palace!

Look mom, white people! Look Sam, Chinese people!

One of the protector dieties painted on the wall near the door of the palace. Most every major monastery or temple has these painted inside to protect the building from evil spirits.


Me at the end of my first experience with Tibetan Buddhism. We couldn't take any pictures inside, but we saw all sorts of cool stuff, and probably like 900 Buddhas!






Some of the dorms outside the palace proper, but still on the grounds.