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Potala Palace (; ) is a museum complex in Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. It was formerly the winter palace of the Dalai Lamas, built in the dzong style on Marpo Ri (Red Mountain). From 1649 until 1959 it served as the Dalai Lamas' residence, after which it became chiefly a museum following the annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China.
The palace is named after Mount Potalaka, regarded in Buddhist tradition as the mythical abode of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. Construction of the present structure was begun in 1645 at the order of the 5th Dalai Lama, advised by Konchog Chophel, the Thirty-fifth Ganden Tripa of the Gelug school. It was built on the site of an earlier palace attributed to Songtsen Gampo (traditionally dated to 637).
Built at an altitude of about on Marpo Ri in the center of the Lhasa Valley, the palace measures east–west and north–south. Its sloping stone walls average thick, at the base, with copper poured into the foundations for earthquake protection. Rising 13 stories, the complex contains more than 1,000 rooms, 10,000 shrines, and some 200,000 statues, reaching a height of above the mountain and over above the valley floor.
History
Context
The Dalai Lama inhabited an estate at Drepung Monastery known as Ganden Podrang. During 1621 Lhasa was made the jurisdiction of Ganden Podrang by Tsang. During the third month of 1642 Gushri Khan Dhamma King, Holder of the Faith, had taken from the Sde-srid Tsang-pa regime of the Garma Gagyu Sect (Tsang) by military forces the places in Tibet, which was the Land of Wooden Doors, held by that governship; and then offered the thirteen parts of Tibet, which is the whole, to the Dalai Lama. the Dalai Lama was made sovereign of Tibet on the golden fearless snow lion throne. Sometime during or soon after 1644, the Dalai Lama, the then regent of Ganden Podrang, and Gushri Khan all decided to build a palace.
The Potala is built on the site of palace Songtsen Gampo on the Red Hill. Ngawang Lozang Gyatso, the Great Fifth Dalai Lama, started the construction of the modern Potala Palace in 1645, (ja) bird<sup>th</sup>) 11th (rab byung) 60-years cycle. (if calculated by 100 year cycle): 1645-127 is anno domini: 1518 after one of his spiritual advisers, Konchog Chophel, 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.
The external structure was built in 3 years, while the interior, together with its furnishings, took 45 years to complete.
Inhabitation
The new palace got its name from a hill on Cape Comorin at the southern tip of India—a rocky point sacred to the bodhisattva of compassion, who is known as Avalokitesvara, or Chenrezi.