Lhasa

Lhasa 拉萨 • ལྷ་ས། Chengguan
District
城关区 • ཁྲིན་ཀོན་ཆུས
From upper left: roof of the Jokhang Temple; Norbulingka monastery main gate; Potala Palace; Wheel of Dharma and prayer wheels (bottom), Jokhang; satellite picture of Lhasa
Chengguan District (pink) within Lhasa (yellow)
Coordinates: 29°39′N 91°07′E / 29.650°N 91.117°E / 29.650; 91.117Coordinates: 29°39′N 91°07′E / 29.650°N 91.117°E / 29.650; 91.117
Country	People's Republic of China
Region	Tibet Autonomous Region
Prefecture-level city	Lhasa
Government
• Type	District (China)
• Mayor (of prefecture-level city)	Zhang Tingqing
• Deputy mayor (of prefecture-level city)	Jigme Namgyal
Area
• District	525 km2 (203 sq mi)
• Urban	60 km2 (20 sq mi)
Elevation	3,656 m (11,995 ft)
Population (2000)
• District	223,001
• Density	424.8/km2 (1,100/sq mi)
• Major Nationalities	Tibetan; Han; Hui
• Languages	Tibetan, Mandarin, Jin language (Hohhot dialect)
Time zone	China Standard (UTC+8)
Postal code	850000
Area code(s)	891
Website	www.lasa.gov.cn

Lhasa
"Lhasa" in Simplified Chinese (top), Traditional Chinese (middle), and Tibetan (bottom)
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese	拉萨
Traditional Chinese	拉薩
Literal meaning	(Tibetan) "Place of the Gods"
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Lāsà Wu Romanization La-sah Yue: Cantonese Jyutping Laai1-saat3 Southern Min Hokkien POJ La-sat
Chengguan District (main urban area)
Simplified Chinese	城关区
Traditional Chinese	城關區
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Chéngguān Qū
Also known as
Simplified Chinese	逻些
Traditional Chinese	邏些
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Luóxiē
Tibetan name
Tibetan	ལྷ་ས་
Transcriptions Wylie lha sa THDL Lhasa Tibetan Pinyin Lhasa Lhasa IPA [l̥ásə] or [l̥ɜ́ːsə]

Lhasa is a city and administrative capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. The main urban area of Lhasa is roughly equivalent to the administrative borders of Chengguan District, which is part of the wider Lhasa prefecture-level city, an area formerly administered as a prefecture.

Lhasa is the second most populous city on the Tibetan Plateau after Xining and, at an altitude of 3,490 metres (11,450 ft), Lhasa is one of the highest cities in the world. The city has been the religious and administrative capital of Tibet since the mid-17th century. It contains many culturally significant Tibetan Buddhist sites such as the Potala Palace, Jokhang Temple and Norbulingka Palaces.

Lhasa literally means "place of the gods". Ancient Tibetan documents and inscriptions demonstrate that the place was called Rasa, which either meant "goats' place", or, as a contraction of rawe sa, a "place surrounded by a wall," or 'enclosure', suggesting that the site was originally a hunting preserve within the royal residence on Marpori Hill. Lhasa is first recorded as the name, referring to the area's temple of Jowo, in a treaty drawn up between China and Tibet in 822 C.E.

By the mid 7th century, Songtsän Gampo became the leader of the Tibetan Empire that had risen to power in the Brahmaputra River (locally known as the Yarlung Tsangpo River) Valley. After conquering the kingdom of Zhangzhung in the west, he moved the capital from the Chingwa Taktsé Castle in Chongye County (pinyin: Qióngjié Xiàn), southwest of Yarlung, to Rasa (Lhasa) where in 637 he raised the first structures on the site of what is now the Potala Palace on Mount Marpori. In CE 639 and 641, Songtsän Gampo, who by this time had conquered the whole Tibetan region, is said to have contracted two alliance marriages, firstly to a Princess Bhrikuti of Nepal, and then, two years later, to Princess Wencheng of the Imperial Tang court. Bhrikuti is said to have converted him to Buddhism, which was also the faith attributed to his second wife Wencheng. In 641 he constructed the Jokhang (or Rasa Trülnang Tsulagkhang) and Ramoche Temples in Lhasa in order to house two Buddha statues, the Akshobhya Vajra (depicting the Buddha at the age of eight) and the Jowo Sakyamuni (depicting Buddha at the age of twelve), respectively brought to his court by the princesses. Lhasa suffered extensive damage under the reign of Langdarma in the 9th century, when the sacred sites were destroyed and desecrated and the empire fragmented.