In the spirit of saving the best until last we decided that we should do this in our last couple of days in Lhasa. This was well worth the trip and even the queue for the tickets as they only allow a maximum of 2500 people a day because they are worried that it might collapse under the pressure of mass tourism and to be fair this is the most visited site in the whole of Tibet.
So you need to queue to book the tickets a day or so in advance and they give you a one hour visit time slot, you have no choice in this. Most of the travel agencies have used their quotas months in advance so if you haven’t got a ticket you will need to take your passport along with you so they can tie the ticket to the individual so no ticket touting is likely.
Once your time slot arrives you take the ticket and queue by the front gate to ensure you are the individual who is supposed to arrive for that time slot you then pass through for the security check and xray. Then off up the hill to the top where the ticket office is. One couple I heard on a previous trip were 20 yuan short of the entry fee and had to run down from the top of the Potala to the bank and back up again to ensure they got in within their time slot, still having newly arrived in Lhasa and suffering from altitude sickness!
This trip was definitely saving the best for last, however once inside no photos were allowed.
In 637 Songtsen Gampo built a palace on the hill. This structure stood until the seventeenth century, when it was incorporated into the foundations of the greater buildings still standing today. Construction of the present palace began in 1645 during the reign of the fifth Dalai Lama and by 1648 the Potrang Karpo, or White Palace, was completed. The Potrang Marpo, or Red Palace, was added between 1690 and 1694; its construction required the labors of more than 7000 workers and 1500 artists and craftsman. The Potala Palace is was the home of the Dalai Lama until 1959.
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ian
but what is it? who built it? when was it built? why did they run out of white paint?
Good point, so I’#ve updated the article, except the white paint bit that’ll take a bit more research
ian
thats better , thought it might be the greenwich municipal water treatment building, your version is much more pleasing
