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Structure of the Potala Palace  |
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 The Potala Palace is more than 117 meters in height, 360 meters from west to east and 270 meters from north to south, with a building area of 130,000 square meters. The entire building is made of stone and wood, with walls averaging three meters thick.
The main architecture of the Potala Palace consists of two parts: the White Palace and the Red Palace. Both palaces indicate the social character of temporal and religious activities in old Tibet.
The White Palace, which is for secular use, has seven storeys containing the living quarters of successive Dalai Lamas and their tutors. It also has a Buddhist official seminary and a printing house.
Entering from the east entrance of the Potala Palace, a broad corridor upward 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. There are three ladder stairs from the courtyard reaching inside of the White Palace. In the first hallway, there are huge murals describing the construction of the Potala Palace 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 West Chamber of Sunshine and the East Chamber of Sunshine lie as the roof of the White Palace. They belonged to the 13th Dalai Lama and the 14th Dalai Lama respectively. Beneath the East Chamber of Sunshine is the largest hall in the White Palace.
The Red Palace is for religious use, which was constructed after the death of the Fifth Dalai Lama, and contains various chapels and mausoleums for previous Dalai Lamas. 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 hall has four additional chapels. The West Chapel houses three gold stupas of the Fifth, 10th and 12th Dalai Lamas. Their mummified and perfumed bodies are well kept in those stupas. The fifth Dalai Lama's stupa is the biggest one. The five-storey stupa, with a height of 14.86 meters, spent more than 3,700 kilograms of gold, and was inlaid with diamonds, pearls, turquoises, agates and corals.
West of the Great West Hall locates the 13th 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 in height, coated with a ton 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.
Editor: Rebecca & Ronnie
Source: CCTV.com
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