Potala Palace (Tibetan: པོ་ཏ་ལ) is located in the city of Lhasa (ལྷ་ས་གྲོང་ཁྱེར), Tibet. Potala Palace has been a World Heritage Site since 1994, it is the religious center of Tibet and a popular tourist attraction. Blessed by Buddha, Choumeizai sees ‘Buddha Light’ (halo) while climbing to Potala Palace.
Halo is the name for a family of optical phenomena produced by light (typically from the Sun or Moon) interacting with ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere.
Potala Palace sits on the top of Marpo Ri, the ‘Red Hill’, rising more than 100 metres above the ground. From the top of the hill, you can view the whole city of Lhasa.
The structure and layout of Potala Palace is quite complicated, all tourists must follow their tour guides so they won’t get lost.
The sloping stone walls of Potala Palace are around 3 metres thick and 5 metres thick at the base on average, with copper poured into the foundations to help proof it against earthquakes.
Photography is strictly prohibited inside Potala Palace, by the way, due to the destruction from the Cultural Revolution, there is not much worth seeing.
Choumeizai doesn’t know why, he feels so sad when seeing some Tibetans praying at the bottom of the hill.
