potala palace 布达拉宫

in 641, after marrying princess wencheng, songtsen gampo decided to build a grand palace to accommodate her and let his descendants remember the event. however, the original palace was destroyed due to a lightening strike and succeeding warfare during landama's reign. in seventeenth century under the reign of the fifth dalai lama, potala was rebuilt. the thirteenth dalai lama expanded it to today's scale. the monastery-like palace, reclining against and capping red hill, was the religious and political center of old tibet and the winter palace of dalai lamas. the palace is more than 117 meters (384 feet) in height and 360 (1180 feet) in width, occupying a building space of 90 thousand square meters. potala is composed of white palace and red palace. the former is for secular use while the later is for religious.

　　the white palace consists of offices, dormitories, a buddhist official seminary and a printing house. from the east entrance of the palace, painted with images of four heavenly kings, a broad corridor upwards leads to deyang shar courtyard, which used to be where dalai lamas watched operas. around the large and open courtyard, there used to be a seminary and dormitories. west of the courtyard is the white palace. there are three ladder stairs reaching inside of it, however, the central one was reserved for only dalai lamas and central government magistrates dispatched to tibet. in the first hallway, there are huge murals describing the construction of potala palace and jokhang temple and the procession of princess wencheng reaching tibet. on the south wall, visitors will see an edict signed with the great fifth's handprint. the white palace mainly serves as the political headquarter and dalai lamas' living quarters. the west chamber of sunshine and the east chamber of sunshine lie as the roof of the white palace. they belonged to the thirteenth dalai lama and the fourteenth dalai lama respectively. beneath the east chamber of sunshine is the largest hall in the white palace, where dalai lamas ascended throne and ruled tibet.

　　the red palace was constructed after the death of the fifth dalai lama. the center of the complicated red palace is the great west hall, which records the great fifth dalai lama's life by its fine murals. the scene of his visit to emperor shunzhi in beijing in 1652 is extraordinarily vivid. it also has finely carved columns and brackets. the hall has four additional chapels. the west chapel houses three gold stupas of the fifth, tenth and twelfth dalai lamas'. their mummified and perfumed bodies are well kept in those stupas. among the three, the fifth dalai lama's stupa is the biggest, which is made of sandalwood, wrapped in gold foil and decorated with thousands of diamonds, pearls, agates and others gems. the stupa, with a height of 14.86 meters (49 feet), spends more than 3,700 kilograms of gold. the north chapel contains statues of sakyamuni, dalai lamas and medicine buddha, and stupas of the eighth, ninth and eleventh dalai lamas. against the wall is tanjur (beijing edition), a most important tibetan buddhist sutra sent to the seventh dalai lama by emperor yongzheng. in the east chapel a two meters (6.5 feet) high statue of tsong khapa, the founder of gelugpa which is dalai lama's lineage, is enshrined and worshipped. in addition, about 70 famous adepts in tibetan buddhism surround him. the south chapel is where a silver statue of padmasambhava and 8 bronze statues of his reincarnations are enshrined. on the floor above, there is a gallery which has a collection of 698 murals, portraying buddhas, bodhisattvas, dalai lamas and great adepts and narrating jataka stories and significant tibetan historic events. west of the great west hall locates the thirteenth dalai lama's stupa hall. since he was regarded as great as the great fifth, people started to build his stupa after his death in the fall of 1933. taking three years, the stupa is comparable with the great fifth's stupa. it is 14 meters (46 feet) in height, coated with a ton (2200 pounds) of gold foils. in front of it is a mandala made of more than 200,000 pearls and other gems. murals in the hall tell important events in his life, including his visit with emperor guangxu. the highest hall of potala was built in 1690. it used to be the holy shrine of chinese emperors. dalai lamas would come here with his officials and high lamas to show their respects to the central government annually before.

　　dharma cave and the saint's chapel are the only structures left which were built in seventh century. they both lie central of the red palace. dharma cave is said to be the place where king songtsen gampo proceeded his religious cultivation. inside the cave, statues of songtsen gampo, princess wencheng, princess tritsun and his chief ministers are enshrined. in the saint's chapel above dharma cave, chenrezi, tsong khapa, padmasambhava, the fifth, seventh, eighth and ninth dalai lamas are enshrined and worshipped. visitors may find a stone with a footprint that was believed left by the infant twelfth dalai lama.

　　notes:

　　1. potala palace 布达拉宫

　　2. princess wencheng 文成公主

　　3. songtsen gampo 松赞干布

　　4. white palace 白宫

　　5. red palace 红宫
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布达拉宫是一座融宫堡和寺院于一体的古建筑群，始建于公元七世纪四十年代松蕃王朝松赞干布时期，距今已有一千三百多年历史。它座落在西藏自治区首府拉萨市中心、古城西北约2公里的玛布山（红山）上，最高处海拔3767.19米，是世界上海拔最高的古代宫殿。

1961年国务院将布达拉宫列为全国重点文物保护单位。19XX年，布达拉宫被确认为世界文化遗产。

布达拉宫是西藏自治区内最完整最宏伟的一座古建筑。“布达拉”是普陀罗（普陀）的译音，意即菩萨住的宫殿，相传公元七世纪时，吐蕃赞普松赞干布与唐联姻，为迎娶文成公主而建成此宫，今尚存法王修法洞和观音佛堂两处早期建筑。现有建筑群为17世纪中叶五世达赖受清朝册封后开始兴建，并经过历代达赖不断扩建而成。1959年前，布达拉宫是五世达赖之后历代达赖喇嘛生活起居和从事政治活动的场所，是旧西藏政教合一的统治权力中心，从七世纪起，先后共有九个赞普 （藏王）和十位达赖在这里居住过。

布达拉宫由红山南麓奠基，缘山而上，依势迭砌，从平地直达山顶，几乎占了整座玛布山（红山）。布达拉宫高117米，东西长360米，外观13层，实为9层，面积约12万平方米，殿宇巍峨，金顶辉煌，共有佛堂、经堂、灵塔殿、习经室 15000多间（按西藏建筑计算办法以柱计算）。整个建筑系石木结构。用块块方石垒砌，高大宽敞的殿堂墙上绘有各种色彩鲜艳的壁画，室内陈设有几十万个用金、银、铜、玉和檀香木等雕铸的大小佛像，造型生动。集中体现了藏族人民高度的建筑成就和独特的艺术风格。

宫城占地41公顷，包括四大部分：红山之上的红宫、白宫、山后的龙王潭和山脚下的“雪”。其中红宫为历代达赖的灵塔殿和各类佛堂，位于整个建筑的中心和顶点，也是须弥佛土和宇宙中心的象征；白宫合抱于红宫外侧，是历代达赖的宫殿、大经堂、噶厦政府机构和僧官学校等，达赖的寝宫位于白宫最高处，又称日光殿；龙王潭为布达拉宫后园，方圆3公里，中为湖，湖中小岛上建有龙王宫和大象房等；“雪”在布达拉宫脚下，其中安置有噶厦政府的监狱、印经所、作坊、马厩，周围是宫墙和碉堡。站在红山脚下，可以看到布达拉宫的整体布局，由下到上分别是“雪”、白宫和红宫，充分体现了藏传佛教中“欲界”、“色界”、“无色界”的“三界说”，通过建筑布局艺术的对比、夸张和渲染，表现了佛法的神威，令人在千年之下，仍望之而生对天国佛境的凛遵之感……

布达拉宫是全国重点文物保护单位之一，红宫白宫内珍藏无数。一年四季开放。开放时间和当地企事业机关办公时间相同。每当藏历新年前一天会有跳神活动。