TIBET

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Entrance steps to the Potala, Tibet

The entrance stairway to the Potala, Lhasa Tibet.

Built on a hill overlooking Lhasa Tse Potala, 'Peak Potala', was named after a hill at Cape Cormarin at the tip of the Indian peninsula. The Indians thought this place to be the end of the world, the mythical home of the Buddha of Compassion. The Potala is the former palace of the Dalai Lama the spiritual leader of Tibet, believed to be the re-incarnation of Pawa Chenresig the Tibetan name for the compassionate Buddha.
With golden rooftops glittering in the sun, it is here that the Tibetans lavished their most skilled construction. Forty years in the making it seems to grow out of the hill on which it stands, sympathetic to the wide plain below and the bare mountains behind.
Under the protection of Chou En Lai during the Cultural Revolution, its interior suffered none of the destruction which so ravaged other Tibetan monuments. Most who have seen it would agree that this is one of the most impressive buildings in the world.
Nowdays most visitors enter the palace by taking a road to near the top of the hill at the rear. The photo depicted here shows the start of the one hundred-plus steps that are taken by more traditional pilgrims. This great staircase zigzags up the face of the castle to give it the diamond-shaped band when seen from the front.

Next month: Smoothing the path: a grader driver in Tibet

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revision 18 Mar 2001
http://www.greenkiwi.co.nz/footprints/photo/ph9910.htm