Tanya_1

I arrived on the morning flight to Lhasa; the guide met me at Konggar Airport. I had organised a guide to save myself a lot of hassle, as I knew I am terrible with languages. The guide organises a bus to get us to Lhasa city, which is about 1 1/2 hours’ away (100km). On the way, Nie Tang Budda greets us –this is a Budda image engraved in the mountain face. I arrive in Lhasa city to rest and acclimatize overnight.
 * //__DIARY ENTRY ONE.__//**

My first day of sight seeing begins at Lhasa’s cardinal landmark – **The** **Potala Palace**. I am a part of an organised tour, which has been run for English speaking visitors, although our guide is slightly hard to understand if I listen carefully I can make out most words said. We are also given a guidebook to peruse at our leisure. My first sight of the Palace is an awe-inspiring moment it is a structure of massive portions and it takes a good 2-hours to visit those rooms, halls and chapels open to the public. The Potala Palace is built at an Altitude of 3 700meters on the side o Marpo Ri hill, which is in the centre of the Lhasa valley. With its flat roofs at various levels and inward sloping walls its appearance greatly resembles that of a fortress. In the centre of all the different buildings is the “red palace” called this due to its red colouring, which distinguishes it from all the other buildings. The red palace contains the main halls, chapels and shrines of past Dalai Lamas. In 637 the first palace was built by King Songsten Gampo to greet his bride Princess Wen Cheng then used as a meditation retreat. The construction of the present palace began in 1645 under the fifth Dalai Lama. The white palace was completed in 1648 and was used as a winter retreat by the Dalai Lama from then. The red palace was added between 1690 and 1694. The Dalai Lama used it as the chief residence until the 14th Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959.