Potala Palace

En un regard

Le château en bref

Rising in white and red walls on the Red Hill of Lhasa, at about 3,700 metres above sea level, the Potala is at once a palace, a fortress and a monastery. Tradition places the residence of King Songtsen Gampo here from the 7th century, and two chapels preserve parts of that early building. The present palace is the work of the 5th Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso, who began building it in 1645 as the seat of his government. The White Palace, the administrative and residential part, was occupied from 1649; the Red Palace, which rises at its centre, was added at the end of the century to house prayer halls and the funerary stupas of the Dalai Lamas. Their battered walls, which seem to grow out of the rock, give the whole its citadel-like appearance. The winter residence of the Dalai Lamas until 1959, the Potala is now a museum. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1994, a listing extended in 2000 to the Jokhang Temple and in 2001 to the Norbulingka.