The Potala Palace II

Welcome back! Let’s continue our journey of Potala Palace. In the Red Palace there are two things worth visiting: the two relic rooms form the original Potala Palace and the holy stupas halls. The two relic rooms are Dharma Cave and Avalokiteshvara hall. And the Holy stupas halls are five stupas halls of fifth, seventh, eighth, ninth and thirteenth Dalai Lama.

•   Dharma Cave

The Dharma Cave is a relic room from original Potala Palace in 7^th century. It located in the center of the Potala Palace. It now contains the statues of Songsten Gampo and his two wives princess Bhrikuti Devi from Nepali and princess Wencheng from China (Tang dynasty).

•  Avalokiteshvara Hall

This hall is also a relic room, it consecrate a mysterious natural sandal Avalokiteshvara and two of his attendants. This Avalokiteshvara has a lot of legends and ancient stories. It was lost twice and miraculously reappeared.

•  The Fifth Dalai Lama stupa Hall

The stupa for the Fifth Dalai Lama Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso is the biggest and the most gorgeous stupa in Potala Palace. This stupa was built in 1690, has a height of 14.85 meters with the structure of Bodhi tower. It was covered with 3721kg gold and is decorated with 52000kg sliver and 18677 different sized precious stones including jewel, pearl, coral, amber, and agate. Inside the stupa is a large phalanx of Sakyamuni and other precious Buddhist relics. This stupa is the most precious thing in the Potala Palace.

• The Seventh Dalai Lama stupa Hall

The stupa of the Seventh Dalai Lama was built in 1757, has a height of 9.36 meters. It was covered by 498kg gold and decorated with more than 10000 precious stones.

• The Ninth Dalai Lama stupa Hall

The stupa of the Ninth Dalai Lama was built in 1815, has a height of 7 meters. It was covered by 178kg gold and decorated with thousands of precious stones. The Ninth Dalai Lama died when he was 11; he had the shortest lifetime of all Dalai lamas.

• The Thirteenth Dalai Lama stupa Hall

The Thirteenth Dalai Lama stupa was the latest stupa in Potala Palace. It was built in 1934, has a height of 12.97 meters and took three years to finish. It was covered by 595kg gold and decorated with more than forty thousands precious stones. The whole stupa is gorgeous and dazzling with gold.

All the holy stupa halls in Potala Palace have a gold roof, and when the sunshine comes in the Palace looks gorgeous. With those precious stupa halls and the gold roof, people say the Potala Palace was made by gold. All the gold and jewel on the stupa were donated from Tibetans. Tibetans are willing to give all their money to the temple to build the stupa of Dalai Lama to show their respect. The more respected the Dalai Lama is, the more gorgeous the stupa.