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Potala Palace

Lhasa Travel Blog › entry 3 of 4 › view trip summary

My love affair with the mountains continues with a trip to The Roof Of The World - Tibet. The journey there on the first railway connecting the Tibet Autonomous Region with the rest of China launched on 1st July 2006 was as interesting as Tibet itself.

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Potala Palace

October 22, 2006

Potala Palace

A trip to Lhasa is never complete without a visit to the magnificent Potala Palace - famous for its grand buildings, complicated constructions, devotional atmosphere and splendid artworks. It comprises the White Palace (administerial building) and the Red Palace (religious building).

The White Palace was used as the winter palace for Dalai Lamas and the walls were painted white to convey peace and quiet. The Red Palace located in the middle of the Palace is renowned for its religious status, gorgeous stupas and precious culture relics and the walls were painted red to represent stateliness and power. The Palace contains interesting cultural relics, beautiful and religious murals as well as the various figures of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and Dalai Lamas showing the genetic stories of Buddhism.

The view from the top of the Palace is the neat rows of buildings of the Lhasa city as well as snow capped mountains in the horizon.

Potala Palace

We visited the Jokhang Temple next but since we were not religiously inclined, the temple and its history meant very little to us. However, it was amazing to witness the devotions of some of the pilgrims performing the body long kow-tows the entire day in return for better karmas. The Bakhor Street next to Jokhang Temple is Lhasa's oldest street with colorful Tibetan features and houses.

I must rave about the hotel that we stayed in Lhasa and would highly recommend that to anyone visiting Lhasa - the Brahamaputra Grand Hotel. It is not just a hotel but a museum hotel and guests are virtually staying inside a museum!! The entire hotel including the lobby, restaurants and along the corridors to the rooms is filled with Tibetan artefacts which are for sale too. The hotel staff wears Tibetan costumes including interesting Tibetan headgears for ladies and leather hats for guys. What a nice experience!