Place · former Dalai Lama winter palace · China
Potala Palace, Lhasa
Also known as Potala, Pho brang Po ta la
The Potala Palace on Marpori ('Red Hill') in Lhasa, built from 1645 under the Great Fifth Dalai Lama Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso on the site of an earlier 7th-century palace of Songtsen Gampo. Thirteen storeys, 999 rooms, housed the Ganden Phodrang government, the Dalai Lama's winter residence, the Namgyal monastery, and the gold-encased tombs of eight Dalai Lamas (the 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th). Named after Mount Potalaka, the Puranic southern-India abode of Avalokiteśvara, of whom the Dalai Lamas are regarded as emanations. UNESCO World Heritage Site 1994; survived the Cultural Revolution and now operates as a state museum under the Chinese government, with monastic rituals continuing in some chapels.
- Periods
- Early Modern Age, British Colonial Age, Republic and Living Practice
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 29.656, 91.117
Connections (2)
- Founder ofNgawang Lobsang Gyatso, the Great Fifth Dalai Lama
The Great Fifth Dalai Lama began the Potala Palace on Marpori ('Red Hill') in Lhasa in 1645, three years after Güshi Khan's Khoshut Mongols defeated the Tsangpa dynasty and placed Tibet under his unified Ganden Phodrang government. The palace was built around the 7th-century shrine of Songtsen Gampo and finished only in 1694, twelve years after the Fifth's death.
- Site withinLhasa
The Potala Palace sits on the Marpori ('Red Hill') in central Lhasa, 2 km north-west of the Jokhang Temple. Built from 1645 by the Great Fifth Dalai Lama on the site of Songtsen Gampo's 7th-century palace, it was the Dalai Lama's winter residence and the seat of the Ganden Phodrang government until 1959, and the city's defining landmark since.
On these journeys
Sources
Standard reference.
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