In the mountains of Tibet, at an altitude of 3,700 meters, in the middle of the Lhasa Valley, the Potala Palace rises on the hill. For several centuries, he was a residence of the Dalai Lam and the Tibet government.
The history of the palace leaves its roots in the distant past. If you believe legend, there is a sacred cave, in which the Bodhisattva Chenzery (Avalokiteshwara) lived, which the Dalai Lama is on Earth. In this cave, the emperor Tibet Songtstene Gampot often meditated. Since the place was considered sacred, the emperor decided to build a palace on the hill and declare this place with his capital. And it was still in the VII century of our era. Unfortunately, many buildings were erected from wood, so in the VIII century, they burned down from the zipper. From the old palace there is little left. But the cave is well preserved, and the place is, as before, was considered holy.
In the middle of the XVII century, on the initiative of V Dalai Lama, the construction of a palace began, which was preserved to the present day. In 1645-1648, the White Palace was erected, which became the residence of Dalai Lam.
In the White Palace there are personal rest of the Dalai Lama, residential chambers of the Regent and the Mentor of the Dalai Lama, the office premises of the government and the library in which Buddhist Scriptures are collected. Here are the seminary and printing house. Official ceremonies were held in the Big Eastern Pavilion.
The second component of the Palace Palace is the Red Palace, which was built in 1690-1694. It pray and spend religious rituals.
There are eight memorial stories in which Dalai Lama is buried in the Red Palace. In addition, there are many large and small halls. They are dedicated to Buddhas, Botchisattany and Dalai Lamam. There are rooms for audiences and various ceremonies. They are exposed to jewels and relics, the statues of the deities and Dalai Lam, books and ritual items.
Potala Palace was the Residence of Dalai-Lam until 1959 - that is, until China's invasion of Tibet. XIV Dalai Lama was forced to leave Tibet and ask for refuge in India. We can say that the palace is great lucky. Unlike most Tibetan monasteries and temples, he was not destroyed by Hunweist in the 1960s and 1970s. Probably because the Chinese government made a palace to the list of cultural monuments in need of special protection of the state.
The main and central part of the complex is represented by the White Palace (Pocong Karpo) in the East and Red (Pochang Marto) - in the West.
Palace Potala created as a symbol of Tibetan statehood. This happened in those times when the country was rallied by the management of Buddhist Dalai Lam.
To finally exalt over all the mortal already tall palace, which is also high in the mountains, he is named after Tibet's patron, Buddhist Divine Avalokiteshwar, the mythical palace in the south of India, who was standing on the top of the mountain, on the Indian Ocean coast (in Chinese Buddhism - Paradio Puce on the island in the East China Sea). According to Buddhist mythology, Potala is a paradise where Bodhisatvia Avalokiteshwara and Tara live.
History
The Tibetan Temple-Palace Potala was built on the site of a huge (more than 1000 rooms) Palace of the king of the Yarong Dynasty of Tibet Songzen Gampo, which was ruled in 604-650. And brought Buddhism to the people of Tibet. Today, Potala visitors show the Cave of Chogyal Compact, in which the King Songzan Gampo meditated, and the Phakra Lhakhang Hall as the surviving fragments of the ancient palace complex. Songzan Gampo was considered the reincarnation of Avalokiteshwara.Idea inspirer and initiator of the start of the construction of Potala in 1645 - Ngawang Lobsang Gyatsu (1617-1682) - Fifth Dalai Lama, or the Great Fifth, Tibetan religious and political figure. He was also considered the reincarnation of Avalokiteshwara. Consequently, Potala Palace - Paradise on Earth - became a visual confirmation of the integrity and revival of the Tibetan state.
However, in the construction of the palace, the obvious political subtext was also noticeable. The first half of the XVII century. She became a period of the most severe struggle of the rival schools of Tibetan Buddhism, supported by the rulers of various areas of Tibet. It was in 1642. Dalai Lama fifth received the supreme power over all Tibet: his school of Tibetan Buddhism Gelug won everyone else, a new Supreme Tibetan Religious Board appeared. The capital was declared Lhasa, where the palace was erected for a new nobility.
The first of the whole complex was built by the White Palace in 1645-1648: Dalai Lama Fifth turned him into his winter residence.
The Red Palace is erected between 1690 and 1694.
Before starting construction, a platform was prepared: the mountain crest was leveled by applying the traditional for Tibetan mountain architecture the cutting technique of downward terraces. Thus, the amazing effect of the "growing" building from the mountain was achieved.
With regard to construction technology and materials, Potala Palace is similar to ordinary peasant houses of Tibet.
Powerful exterior bearing walls are composed of roughly treated stones. They are fastened by clay. Thick wooden beams that support the floor and ceiling are inserted into the walls. In the premises of the beams are supported by wooden columns.
Slowed outdoor walls are also typical for homes of simple residents of Tibet: the walls are bevelled inward by 6-9 °. The space between the outer and the inner walls reaches 5 m (!), It is filled with the ground, stones and interleaven branches of the zeal.
Palace Potala One of his appearance should inspire the reverence and humility of the will of the Gods and their representatives on earth. Therefore, he is ascended to the hill in the midst of the valley high in the mountains of Tibet.
Created with the support of Mongols, the Palace of Potal in his appearance connected the Indian roots of Tibetan Buddhism, the Chinese architectural decor and traditional Tibetan construction technology.
Since 1951, he is part of the PRC on the rights of the autonomous region. His spiritual leader - Dalai Lama - since 1959 dwells in exile. But Potala Palace preserved: unlike most Tibetan monasteries and temples, Potala was not destroyed by the Hunweist and the Chinese army, thanks to the personal order of the first premiere of the State Council of the PRC Zhou Egnlay (1898-1976).
Potala and today remains the architectural embodiment of the Buddhist essence of Tibet.
The White Palace consists of a spacious eastern pavilion, a sunny pavilion, the residential chambers of the regent and the Mentor of the Dalai Lama, and also the official premises of the Government of the Tibetan Autonomous Region. The big oriental pavilion has always been used for official ceremonies. In the sunny pavilion there were personal rest of the Dalai Lama, then he lived and worked, read the sacred texts, solved the issues of management.
The Red Palace served as a place of prayer meetings and holding religious rituals. There are also several pavilions here.
In the Western extension of the Red Palace there is a tomb of Thuptan Giaso - Dalai Lama Thirteenth (1876-1933), which ruled from 1895 to 1933
Such a credit was also honored for ensuring that in 1912, he achieved the proclamation of the independence of Tibet and the formation of an independent Tibetan state.
The walls of the Palace Palace are covered with a layer of lime in a white palace and ocher - in red. The walls always look like new, because they are poured from above, and instead of the brushes use horns from the wool yaks.
You can always find out what places in the palace are of particular importance: they have small gold-plated Chinese roofs, but at the same time with gilded Indian ornaments, in ancient hand made by the hands of Nepalese masters.
The windows of the palace are curtained with carpets from black wool yak.
Eight memorial storms with disablled bodies of Dalai Lam are considered very important for Palace and Temple. Among them are the Stupa Dalai Lama Fifth - the builder of the White Palace.
Potala Palace is surrounded by monastery residential premises (focused in the Western Wing), storeroom and external fortification facilities. Due to the crowbility of buildings, it is sometimes difficult to judge what period they relate, but, in all likelihood, this is the end of the XVII century. It should be noted that the Temple Palace is constantly completed, making changes to the overall complex.
A visitors can get into the complex of the Palace of Palace, they can through a narrow gate to which several stepped ramps lead.
In the inner premises of the palace, wooden beams and columns, as well as walls are decorated with complex carvings and drawings. The halls are filled with many relics: these are spatial mandalas for contemplation, memorial stupas, statues of Dalai Lam and teachers, statues of deities and Yidamov, books, ritual items.
For all ages of its existence, Potala Palace never turned out to be significantly damaged. Its beautiful appearance and good condition of the interiors are supported only by the necessary repair.
Over the past decades, Lhasa marked noticeably, there were many buildings in a modern style, but Potala, as in the old days, everything is still majestically towers over the changing city landscape.
Potal Palace listed on UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994
general information
Location: Southeast Tibet.Administrative location: City of Lhasa, Tibetan Autonomous District, PRC.
Status: a cult facility, a historical monument.
Construction: VII, XVII, XIX centuries.
Languages: Tibetan, Chinese.
Ethnic composition: Tibetans, Hantians.
Religion: Buddhism.
Currency unit: yuan.
Numbers
Total Palace Square: 360 000 m 2 (along with the front yard and pond).Total height of the complex: 117 m.
Length: 400 m.
Width: 350 m.
Wall thickness: 3-5 m.
Floors: 13.
Height above sea level: 3650 m.
Eastern Yard Area (Terraces): 1600 m 2.
Square Cave Chogyal Compact: 27 m 2.
Number of monks (Nammyal Monastery) : 200.
Climate and weather
Mountain.The average temperature of January: -2.5 ° C.
The average temperature of July: + 15 ° C.
The average annual amount of precipitation: 420 mm.
Relative humidity: 60%.
sights
■ The complex of the palace and the temple of Potala (VII, XVII centuries).■ White Palace (1645-1648)
■ Red Palace (1690-1694)
■ Tkombic Thuptan Giaso - Dalai Lama XIII (1934-1936)
■ Other structures: Monastic residential premises, storerooms and external fortification facilities (end of the XVII century).
Curious facts
■ In 1652, Dalai Lama Fifth, the builder of Potala, arrived in Beijing, where a yellow palace was built specifically for him. Then by China's emperor Shun-Ji from the Qing dynasty as a sign of special appreciation assigned to Dalai Lame the fifth title penetrating, carrying a thunder's scepter similar to the ocean of Lama. In gratitude to the Dalai Lama, the fifth awarded emperor title Heavenly God, Manjushri, the highest, great lord.■ Building stone was delivered to a conflict from a quarry northeast of Lhasa. Delivered porters - on their own backs and in volokuschi. The clay used as a solution was mined right on the spot, and the remaining pits turned into a pond called the King Dragon pool.
■ Dalai Lama The thirteenth played a very important role in the so-called big game - diplomatic and military confrontation between Russia, Great Britain and the Qing Empire at the end of the XIX - early XX century. At the same time, he was on the side of Russia. In 1904, after the British invasion of Tibet, Dalai Lama fled in Urga, the capital of Mongolia. Turning to the Russian consulate, he asked the royal government permission to move to Russia. Dalai Lama received a refusal: if this request was satisfied, Russia for a long time, if not forever, would have spoiled relationships with China.
■ The main difference between the Potala architecture from the walls of traditional Tibetan houses is that the walls of small bastions in the eastern and western wing are rounded, and not direct.
■ Only the diligent consequence of the Tibetan traditions of house-building in the sweat can be explained by the presence on the flat roofs of the vertical parapet, in whose facial surface is inserted by the branches of Willow and Tamarisk, the ends directed outward and painted in red. They symbolize the knitting of the twigs and the shank of the hay, which in our days the Tibetan peasants are folded on the roofs of their simple houses.
■ The underground sanctuary of the ancient Dobddy Religion Bon has been preserved in the lower base tier.
■ Potala relics - one hundred sacred scrolls on palm leaves from ancient India. They are written more than a thousand years ago, while gold and silver inks were used, dyes from pearls, iron powder, corals, sea seashells and copper dust. Paper of scrolls do not affect insects or damp.
■ After the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama of the fifth (death and search of the new), his approximate hid it was almost ten years, fearing that the people would make up and stop working on the construction of Potala Palace.
■ Dalai Lama Fifth Stupa ranks fourth floor, its height is about 15 m, it is made of gold.
In the city of Lhasa in Tibet - the Tsarist Palace and the Buddhist temple complex, was the main residence of the Dalai Lama.
Up to the flight of the Dalai Lama XIV in Darmasalu (India) after China's invasion in Tibet in 1959.
Located on a high hill that dominates the city. The total palace of the palace complex is 360 thousand square meters. m.
Now Potala Palace is a museum, actively visited by tourists, remaining the place of pilgrimage of Buddhists and continuing to be used in Buddhist rituals.
Due to the enormous cultural, religious, artistic and historical significance, was submitted in 1994 to the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Name "Potala" Comes from the word, which in Sanskrit means "Buddha Mountain". At this place in the VII century, our era stood the Palace of Song-Wall Gampe, dedicated to the Buddhist Tibet ruler.
Potala is located 3,700 meters above sea level, its height is 115 meters divided into 13 floors, the total area of \u200b\u200bwhich is more than 130,000 square meters. There are no accurate data on how many rooms and halls in the sweat. Their number is "somewhere over a thousand," and there are quite a few people who were able to get around them all.
The palace in its modern form began to be built in 1645 at the initiative of the Dalai Lama V. In 1648, the White Palace was completed (Park Carpo), and Potala began to be used as a Winter Residence of Dalai Lam. The Red Palace (Pocrong Marpo) was completed between 1690 and 1694.
The palace is located at an altitude of 3,700 m on the Red Hill (Marpo Ri) in the middle of the Lhasa Valley. Due to the terraces, sites on the roofs and temples, it does not impress the fortress (Dzong). The general view of the palace stretching on the mountain range, with towers, walls, stairs, temples and extensions, is a unique art decision, its majesty and beauty are appreciated by Buddhists, architects and artists, are striking travelers.
Numerous pilgrims bypass around the hill with a palace, making a bark - a ritual trafficking of the holy place. Along the bark there are numerous prayer drums and trading rows.
To get inside the palace, in shape resembling a truncated pyramid or a trapezium, you need to go through a wide area located on all sides of the building. Only passing through them you can approach the slope, along the entire surface of which many zigzag stairs are scattered, connecting all parts of the palace.
The White Palace consists of a large eastern pavilion, a sunny pavilion, the residential entourage of the Regent and the Mentor of the Dalai Lama, and the official premises of the government. The big oriental pavilion was used for official ceremonies, in the Dalai Lama Sunny Pavilion actually lived and worked, read the sacred texts, was engaged in control.
The Red Palace served to a greater degree of prayers and religious rituals, there are pavilions in it. Eight memorial stations, including the fifth and thirteenth Dalai Lam, have great importance.
In addition to Palace, the palace consists of a string of large and small rooms (temples) dedicated to Buddhas, Boddhisatans, Dalai Lamam, as well as for audiences and ceremonies. In the halls, jewels and relics are spatial mandalas for contemplation, memorial stupas, statues of Dalai Lam and teachers, statues of deities and Yidamov, books, ritual items, complex painting system on the walls.
An excerpt from the book of His Holiness the Dalai Lama XIV "My country and my people"
"They say it is one of the largest buildings in the world. Even if you live there for many years, all the secrets of this building are impossible to know. It completely covers the top of the hill. This is a whole city.
However, besides the fact that the building was used as an office, a temple, a school and a dwelling, Potala was also a huge warehouse. There were rooms filled with thousands of invaluable icons, Thanok. Some of them were written thousand years ago. There were rooms filled with golden regalia of the ancient kings of Tibet, which also had age for more than 1000 years, and various gifts obtained from Chinese and Mongolian emperors, as well as Treasures of the Dalai Lam, who ruled the country after the kings. Here they were kept armor and weapons of the period of all Tibetan history.
The libraries were the chronicles of Tibetan culture and religion, about seven thousand huge volumes. Some, as they say, weighed about 80 pounds, and other were written on palm leaves brought from India 1000 years ago. Two thousand enlightening scripture volumes were written in ink composed of gold powders, silver, iron, copper, pearl, lazurite and coral. Each line was written in ink of another color. "
One of the main attractions of the Palace is a lot of frescoes depicting various household and ritual stories. Some of the frescoes for a long time were not available for wide viewing. Only at the end of the 90s they were posted in the halls, and now they can see all the pilgrims and tourists who came to Potal.
Many of the frescoes depict the twelve council of God Avalokitershwara and his spouses goddess containers. The fact is that it is these deities that are considered the main patrons of Tibet. For the manufacture of these frescoes, Tibetan masters used agate, amber, gold and silver powder
- invaluable treasury Tibet, SAMA th high ancientpalace in China, and all over the world, whose height reaches 3,767 m (12,359 feet). He is located on Red Hill - Marpo Ri in the centere Lhasa - and the storm capital of Tibet. Potala got his name in honor of the Holy Mountain in South India in Sanskrit "Abode of Avalokiteshwara (Buddha Mercy)."
The palace was built on the place where the ruler of Tibet Songscene Gampo usually meditated. The first facility was built here in 637. Later he decides Lhasa to make the capital of Tibet and as the legend says, in honor of the engagement with Princess Wen Cheng from the Chinese dynasty Tang (618 - 907) in the 7th century Songszn Gampo builds a 9-storey building - a palace with thousands of rooms.
Later, with the collapse of the Songzden Gampa dynasty, the ancient palace was almost destroyed in wars. The image that we see today is the architecture of the Qing dynasty (1644 - 1911). Potala Palace consists of 2 parts, the Red Palace is the center and the White Palace, located as two wings. 
Red Palace or Potrang Marpo. - The highest part of the palace, it is devoted to learning and religious Buddhist prayers.
In terms of ideas, it is a magnifier and strength. The red palace consists of a complex layout of various halls, chapels and libraries at many levels with many small galleries and winding corridors: The Great West Hall, the cave of Dharma, the chapel of the saint, the grave of the thirteenth Dalai Lama, etc.
The Great West Hall - the largest hall of Potala Palace , with beautiful frescoes on its inner walls. Around it is three chapels, the chapel of the East, the chapel of the North, as well as the South Chapel. Dharma Cave and Chapel of the Saint only two preserved 7th century designs with the statues of Songzden Gampa and Princess Wen Cheng inside.
White Palace or Potrang Karpo sometime served as an administrative building of local self-government, as well as the residential premises of the Dalai Lama. The walls are painted in white to convey silence and peace. The large hall of the East on the fourth floor was a venue for special political and religious acts.
The fifth and sixth floors are used as residential premises and registan offices while the seventh floor, the top, is the residential room of the Dalai Lama, consisting of two parts, called the Eastern Chamber of Sunshine and the Western Chamber of Sunshine due to the abundance of sunlight.
Potala Palace has other structures, including schools of Buddhist logic, seminaria, printing houses, gardens, yards and even prisons. For more than 300 years, the Palace keeps many relics of culture, such as frescoes, stupes, statues, tanks and rare sutras.
Palace Potal Nowadays
- Center of Tibetan religion, politics, history and art, and today - a large-scale museum. It keeps in itself more than 2500 square meters of frescoes, about 1000 sts, more than 10,000 sculptures and about 10,000 tank paintings. The collection also includes paintings, wood threads, classic scriptures, gold products, jade and products of local artisans, which reflect the wisdom and intelligence of Tibetans. The burial stupas are built here to keep the remnants of Dalai Lam at the time of their death.
Currently, there are eight luxurious stations, one for each Dalai Lama, except for the sixth, who was removed from this service. The burial stupas differ in size, but have such a structure consisting of the top, housing and base. All stupes are decorated with gold and precious stones. The most majestic of all is the stupid of the fifth Dalai Lama.
It costs almost 15 meters (about 49 feet) in height, and 15,000 pearls, carnelian and precious stones are decorated. The frescoes in the corridors depict historical figures, religious legends, Buddhist stories, folk customs and architecture.
A construction of a length of 320 m and a height of 110 m, around which the eagles flip, divides on white and red palaces. The White Palace Potal with a defense covered base in its current form arose at the 5th Dalai Lama since 1645 with the participation of a large number of serfs. From the more ancient fortress that existed on this grief since Songzen Gampo (VII century) practically nothing left - although the legend states that the relics of the time are the cave for meditation (see below) and the Phagpu Hall. The White Palace contains rooms that perform purely practical functions, including bedrooms, work offices and a hall for Dalai Lama's audiences. In addition, there are a monastery tract, administrative premises and warehouses. The most important shrines are located in the Red Palace, erected with the regent of the 6th Dalai Lama until 1694. Since then, the appearance of Potala has not changed almost unchanged.
Inspection
The main entrance to Potala Palace, through which pilgrims follow, leads up to the side of the fortress mountain (the so-called Red Mountain), which is addressed to the old city, to the eastern part of the White Palace. Tourists within the booked program are carried on the road from the west to the northern side of the Red Palace, so that they entered the holy of saints, so to speak, through the back door. From there you must move along the route of inspection leading to all important premises with an unusually large number of great items of art.
Big Western Hall
The center of the Red Palace is a large western hall, the intronization room. Its walls are decorated with paintings with episodes from the life of Dalai Lam, Tibetan kings and the incarnations of Bodhisattva Avalokiteshwara. Four rooms surrounding the West Hall can be based on their religious meaning, to consider as the history of Tibetan Buddhism: the Hall of Padmasambhava tells about its origins; He is dedicated to the Indian Saint, which arrived in Tibet in the VIII century, submitted to the local religion demons and instructed them from now on to stand on Buddhism. The following room is the Hall of the Tsongkhay Reformed Hall, whose heir subsequently became the 1st Dalai Lama. The third room is devoted to him and four of its subsequent incarnations. The fourth tait gravestones with the bodies of the 5th, 10th and 12th Dalai Lam. We are talking about 14 meter, abundantly gilded and decorated with gems of pagodas with relics. The central stupa of the 5th Dalai Lama is the most luxurious jewelry of the Potala. The death shells of eight Tibetan priests are resting in such laritsa in the Red Palace. Outside, their exact location shows the gilded roofs of the Red Palace.
Top floor
On the stairs in the northeast of the Western Hall, it is possible through the intermediate floor with wall paintings, which, among other things, depict the construction of the Potala, get to the top floor with other significant halls and wonderful images. Here in the northeast corner there is also a hall for the meditation of the king Songzen Gampo. This room with cliff layouts, designed as a grotto, goes back to the time of the founding of Lhasa and the origins of the Potala Palace, as well as generally Tibetan Buddhism. Platically, the king is depicted between the thirtieth of the Avalokiteshvara and the 5th Dalai Lama; Next, the statues of Wives Songzen Gampo, Padmasambhava and other persons are visible.
Phagpu hall
An annular corridor leads to the hall of peaceful and angry gods, as well as to two chairs, full of many valuable metal sacrificial gifts. Over them is the Phagpu Hall. The left entrance in it shows the prints of legs and hands, allegedly left by Padmasambhaw, Zongkhape and the 12th Dalai Lama. The main statues in the premises are the three statues of Avalokiteshwaras from sandalwood, which allegedly emerged as natural formations from a split woody trunk; Therefore, believers see the manifestation of the otherworldly in these figures, and respectively, the reverence given to them.
Stupa 13th Dalai Lama and private
If you go to the left, then you can walk to the tombstone of the 13th Dalai Lama, which died in 1933. Further follows the private chambers of the 6th Dalai Lama, a vitality, who did not obey the monastic vows and subsequently allegedly killed. In this room today they honor the Amitayus, Buddha longevity. The staircase leads to the attic floor with the hall of Maitrey, in which the throne of the 8th Dalai Lama is. From the roof platform, a beautiful view of the city opens. Next, the ring corridor leads to the private rest of the 13th and 14th (current) Dalai Lama. Since the last in 1959 fled from Tibet, the premises allocated to him practically retain the original appearance. Through the courtyard and extremely luxury portals, you can go to the leading up the stairs on the south side of the palace and go down to the city. Opening hours: weekly. 9.30-12.00, 15.00-17.00.
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