Potala Palace

Potala Palace
Potala Palace
Potala Palace Location within Tibet
Coordinates	29°39′28″N 91°07′01″E / 29.65778°N 91.11694°E / 29.65778; 91.11694
Monastery information
Location	Lhasa, Tibet, China
Founded by	Songtsän Gampo
Founded	637
Date renovated	Modern palace constructed by the 5th Dalai Lama in 1645 Renovated:1989 to 1994, 2002
Type	Tibetan Buddhist
Lineage	Dalai Lama
Head Lama	14th Dalai Lama
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Official name	Historic Ensemble of the Potala Palace, Lhasa
Type	Cultural
Criteria	i, iv, vi
Designated	1994 (18th session)
Reference no.	707
Region	Asia-Pacific
Extensions	2000; 2001

Potala Palace
"Potala Palace" in Simplified Chinese (top), Traditional Chinese (middle), and Tibetan (bottom) script
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	布達拉宮
Simplified Chinese	布达拉宫
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Bùdálā gōng
Tibetan name
Tibetan	ཕོ་བྲང་པོ་ཏ་ལ་
Transcriptions Wylie pho brang potala

The Potala Palace (Tibetan: ཕོ་བྲང་པོ་ཏ་ལ་, Wylie: pho brang Potala) in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region was the residence of the Dalai Lama until the 14th Dalai Lama fled to India during the 1959 Tibetan uprising. It is now a museum and World Heritage Site.

The palace is named after Mount Potalaka, the mythical abode of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. The 5th Dalai Lama started its construction in 1645 after one of his spiritual advisers, Konchog Chophel (died 1646), pointed out that the site was ideal as a seat of government, situated as it is between Drepung and Sera monasteries and the old city of Lhasa. It may overlay the remains of an earlier fortress called the White or Red Palace on the site, built by Songtsän Gampo in 637.

The building measures 400 metres east-west and 350 metres north-south, with sloping stone walls averaging 3 m. thick, and 5 m. (more than 16 ft) thick at the base, and with copper poured into the foundations to help proof it against earthquakes. Thirteen stories of buildings—containing over 1,000 rooms, 10,000 shrines and about 200,000 statues—soar 117 metres (384 ft) on top of Marpo Ri, the "Red Hill", rising more than 300 m (about 1,000 ft) in total above the valley floor.