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=**Potala Palace- 2/05/07**=

We arrived in Lhasa yesterday. My first step out from the airport was a really tiring one. After putting on my jacket, walking to pick up my luggage and carrying them just to the exit, I could already feel the altitude effect. I was feeling as if i would have run for a half an hour and felt a little bit dizzy at the beginning. I had some altitude pills, but after a few hours I was feeling much better. I was able to feel the altitude all the time we were there, i didn’t feel as fit as usual, but i was really easily exhausted and without breathing and my hands were a little bit blow up…but it wasn’t anything serious to worry about.

Today, our second day in Tibet, we went to the **Potala Palace,** located in Lhasa. It was the chief residence of the Dalai Lama until the 14th Dalai Lama fled to India after a failed uprising in 1959. Today the Potala Palace is a state museum of China. We'd booked a tour before we came, starting at 9.30am. The bus from our hotel took us. The Tibetan tour guide also spoke some english, but he gave us all pamphlets on the palace with the information he was saying written. It was a good day, learning about the history of the palace. Here's some information a learned.



The site was used as a meditation retreat by King Songtsen Gampo, who in 637 built the first palace there in order to greet his bride Princess Weng Cheng of the Tang Dynasty of China, which was incorporated into later buildings. The construction of the present palace began in 1645 under the fifth Dalai Lama, Lozang Gyatso. In 1648, the Potrang Karpo (White Palace) was completed, and the Potala was used as a winter palace by the Dalai Lama from that time. The Potrang Marpo (Red Palace) was added between 1690 and 1694. The name Potala is possibly derived from Mount Potolako, the mythological abode of Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara. There are some theories suggesting that Potala derived its name from the Sabarimala temple in South India. Built at an altitude of 3,700 m (12,100 ft), on the side of Marpo Ri hill, the Red Mountain in the center of Lhasa Valley, Potala Palace, with its vast inward-sloping walls broken only in the upper parts by straight rows of many windows, and its flat roofs at various levels, is not unlike a fortress in appearance. At the south base of the rock is a large space enclosed by walls and gates, with great porticos on the inner side. A series of tolerably easy staircases, broken by intervals of gentle ascent, leads to the summit of the rock. The whole width of this is occupied by the palace. The central part of this group of buildings rises in a vast quadrangular mass above its satellites to a great height, terminating in gilt canopies similar to those on the Jokhang. This central member of Potala is called the "red palace" from its crimson colour, which distinguishes it from the rest. It contains the principal halls and chapels and shrines of past Dalai Lamas. There is in these much rich decorative painting, with jewelled work, carving and other ornament. The Potala Palace was inscribed to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1994. In 2000 and 2001, In addition, the 18th century Chinese Putuo Zongcheng Temple was modeled after the Potala Palace.