Potala Palace
| Potala Palace | |
|---|---|
| Religion | |
| Affiliation | Tibetan Buddhism |
| Leadership | 14th Dalai Lama |
| Location | |
| Location | Lhasa,Tibet Autonomous Region, China |
| Geographic coordinates | 29°39′28″N 91°07′01″E / 29.65778°N 91.11694°E |
| Architecture | |
| Founder | Songtsen Gampo |
| Date established | 1649 |
| 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 (Tibetan: པོ་ཏ་ལ་ཕོ་བྲང Chinese: 布达拉宫) is the name of a museum in Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region in China, built in the dzong-style. It was previously a palace of the Tibetan sovereign, the Dalai Lama, and was the winter palace of the Dalai Lamas from 1649. In 1959 the Tibetan government ceased inhabitation when the buildings were seized by the People's Republic of China.
The palace is named after Mount Potalaka, which within Buddhist thought is the mythical abode of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. The 5th Dalai Lama made decree for its construction in 1645 with advice of Konchog Chophel the Thirty-Fifth Ganden Tripa of the monastical tradition of Tsongkhapa. The Potala is on ruins of the White or Red Palace, built by decree of Songtsen Gampo in 637.
Built at an altitude of 3,700 metres, on the side of Ri Marpo ('Red Mountain') in the centre of Lhasa Valley, the building measures 400m east–west and 350m north–south, with sloping stone walls averaging 3m thick, and 5m thick at the base, and with copper poured into the foundations to help proof it against earthquakes. The Potala is thirteen storeys of buildings which contain over 1,000 rooms, 10,000 shrines and about 200,000 statues. The building height is 119m on Marpo Ri, and more than 300m in total above the valley floor.