Lhasa (Tibet)

Potala (palace):

The Potala Palace was the winter palace of, among others, the Dalai Lamas, until the fourteenth Dalai Lama (the present) fled to McLeod Ganj, near Dharamsala in India. It is built on the mountain Marpori (the red mountain) in Lhasa and is 13 stories high.

It is located a few kilometers from the old core of the city. The mountain protrudes about 130 m above the surrounding valley. At the bottom of the mountain is the village of Zhöl with, among other things, the column of Zhöl on which a number of inscriptions are the oldest known examples of Tibetan writing. 

The palace was built in a place where in the seventh century a castle was built by Songtsen Gampo. In 1648 the so-called 'Potrang Karpo' or 'white palace' was built by the fifth Dalai Lama. This Dalai Lama gave it the name Potala to Potolaka, the name for the mythical palace of the boddhisattva Avalokiteshvara. After his death in 1694 the 'Potrang Marpo' or 'red palace' was phased out. The last change took place in 1922 when the thirteenth Dalai Lama carried out many renovations and added two storeys.

The palace now consists of 1000 rooms. The palace is on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Jokhang temple:

The Jokhang, is the oldest Buddhist temple in Tibet and is located in the Barkhor district in the city. It is probably the most popular tourist attraction of Lhasa and is listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. In the chapel of the temple is the most venerated object of Tibetan Buddhism; the Jowo Shakyamuni, a statue that is supposed to be a representation of Gautama Buddha.

Jokhang literally means House of the Jowo. The chapel was built in the time of the Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo (605-650) as one of the two temples for the Chinese princess Wencheng and the Nepalese princess Bhrikuti. The temple was literally called "the wonderful appearance on the land of the goats". The temple has for centuries been an important Buddhist pilgrimage center and one of the most important destinations for pilgrims in Tibet.

The temple complex has expanded considerably over the past centuries and occupies an area of approximately 25,000 m². The temple has four floors and the roofs consist of gilded bronze tiles. The architecture style is a mixture of Indian, Nepali and Tang Dynasty styles. On the roof is the famous statue with two golden deer on either side of a dharma wheel.

Barkhor

The name Barkhor stands for the neighborhood in Lhasa where, among other things, it is the square with the same name and for example the "Jokhang" temple is situated. Once there were four large incense burners (sangkangs) standing that spreaded incense throughout the four main directions, with the aim of pleasing the gods and protecting the Jokhang.

The neighborhood has a well-known market and narrow streets and alleys. Barkhor attracts many tourists since the Chinese government opened the door in 1979 for tourism in Tibet. Barkhor was always popular as a religious central place for pilgrims in Tibet and other populations.

The name Barkhor is derived from the Tibetan name for pilgrims in Tibet, gnas skor ba, literally: someone who makes a tour around a holy place. In a round of one kilometer around some noble houses and the Jokhang-temple can be walked, the former seat of the Tibetan state oracle that the monastery Muru Nyingba was called. The neighborhood is traditionally a korlam, or a pilgrimage path around the Jokhang-temple in this case. 

According to Tibetan Buddhist tradition, there are three pilgrim routes in Lhasa of which the first is mentioned. The middle route is the Barkhor and holds a tour around the Jokhang Temple with other monasteries and temples in the old town of Lhasa. The outer route is the Lingkhor which runs along the former city limits of Lhasa and is also open to tourism at the beginning of the 21st century. 

Other attractions:

• The Tibet Museum in Lhasa, which opened in 1999, has more than 30,000 exhibits of Tibetan art and culture. Another attraction is the Norbulingka summer palace of the "Dalai Lama".

In the period after the empire, the place of the political center in a more fragmented Tibet depended on the most dominant power factor of that moment. However, Lhasa has already become an important pilgrimage site.

Through Tsongkhapa and his followers, in the surroundings of Lhasa, after the year 1400, three important gelug monasteries were built. The three monasteries are Ganden, Sera and Drepung. It is only from that period that the development of a village of Lhasa begins. The fifth Dalai Lama moved the seat of government to Lhasa, which became the political capital of Tibet. In 1645 the renovation of the Potala Palace began on the Marpori (red mountain).

In 1648 the Potrang Karpo, the white palace of the Potala, was completed. From that time, the Potala was used by the Dalai Lama as a winter palace. The Potrang Marpo (Potala's red palace) was added between 1690 and 1694. The summer palace Norbulingka and the gardens on the south-west side of the city were built in the 18th century, during the seventh Dalai Lama. 

Lhasa, the forbidden town

For a long time Lhasa was forbidden area for foreign visitors. In the first half of the 20th century, various western explorers undertook journeys to the city that were later widely reported in the press. Lhasa was the center of Tibetan Buddhism, and nearly half of the population was monk. The number of inhabitants of Lhasa amounted to approximately 25,000 in 1951, excluding some 15,000 monks in the monasteries in the area. After the invasion of Tibet many people fled the city, including the fourteenth Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso who had fled from his home in the Potala Palace and arrived in exile in India in 1959.

Barkhor was during the uprisings in Tibet between 1987 and 1993 the scene of demonstrations of Tibetan monks and nuns calling for freedom for Tibet. During the uprising of 2008, monks were beaten by the riot police on 11 March, after which riots broke out and the buildings in Barkhor were set on fire. Most old streets have been demolished between 1993 and 2004 and have given way to wider streets and new buildings. According to the International Committee of Lawyers for Tibet, this was done in order to have better control of protests, in which demonstrators could initially escape from police fire through the narrow streets.