As King Songtsen Gampo’s 7th century structure was almost completely destroyed, the oldest sections of the Potala Palace date mostly from the time of Lozang Gyatso, the Fifth Dalai Lama with additions by the 13th Dalai Lama. Perched on Marpo Ri Hill, this former seat of government was also the residence of Tibet’s spiritual leader.

The area where Potala Palace is located was used as a meditation place till a palace was built in year 637 by King Songtsen Gampo for his bride Princess Wen Cheng of the Tang Dynasty of China. In year 1645 the Fifth Dalai Lama decided to build the Potala Palace here after that his adviser advisers, Konchog Chophel, suggested that this place was ideal for a govermental seat. The construction took 39 years to finish(1694).

Since than this palace was used as a winter palace by the following Dalai Lama. The palace was under threat two times; it was lightly damaged during the Uprising of Tibetan against Chinese and during the Cultural Revoluiton as it was prevented by the help of Zhou Enlai, who was a Chinese Premier against the revolution. Although that there are still over 100,000 works which is missing or damaged.

The Potala Palace includes two Palaces. First of them is the Potrang Karpo, the White Palace. This palace is where Dalai Lama used to settle when he was in the Potala Palace. The White Palace was built by the Fifth Dalai Lama, and an extension has been added by the Thirteenth Dalai Lama. This structure contains living quarters, offices, the seminary and the printing house.

The other palace is the Potrang Marpo, Red Palace, which is devoted for religious study and Buddhist prayer. This structures has many halls, chapels and librares on a variety of different levels with complex sequence of galleries. The major structures of Red Palace are the Great West Hall and the Saint’s Chapel.

The Potala Palace, which is the main residence of the Dalami Lama until 1960’s, is converted into a museum in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region. It has it’s name from Mount Potala by the Chinise.

The palace risides on a area of 350 x 400 meters. It is surrounded by 3-5 meters thick stone walls. In the foundations of the palaca copper is poured so that the structure would be more resistant to the earthquakes. The palace located on the Marpo Ri, meaning “Red Hill”, with a height of 300 meters, has more than 1,000 rooms, 10,000 shrines and 200,000 statues. As you can see there are numerous decorations, jewelled works, paintings and statues.